Hosted by OSOS , contributed by aneta on 14 December 2019
Hunting for asteroids
Young minds like challenges, they enjoy important tasks. One such important aim is to contribute to mitigation of asteroid hazards. This unique possibility is given to students all over the world by the IASC:
“The International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) is a citizen science program. It provides high quality astronomical data to citizen scientists around the world. They are able to make original astronomical discoveries and participate in hands-on astronomy.” http://iasc.cosmosearch.org/
By data of IASC, each year more than 2000 teams participate from more than 80 countries. The volunteers can make important discoveries for Main Belt asteroids (MBAs) and occasionally of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs).
February 12th, 2010 students from Vaptzarov Language High School, Shumen, Bulgaria discovered the Main Belt asteroid 2010 CG138. Their discovery was eventually announced by the Minor Planet Center.
We are proud of our students!
Since the beginning in October 2006, participants have made over 1,500 asteroid discoveries. Since May 2019 , 55 have been numbered and placed into the world’s official minor bodies catalog maintained by the International Astronomical Union (IAU, Paris). Numbered asteroids can be named by their discoverers.
Classes of 2019 from Specialized Language High School “Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov”, Shumen, took the challenge of participating in All Bulgaria Asteroid Search Campaign ( 28 th March – 24 th April ) and in the International Asteroid Search Campaign ( 27 th May – 27 June).
, Повече от 50 комплекта със снимки.....
להרגיש
We decided to take part in the project to begin exploring the exciting new world of space and learning more about asteroids. We want to help and contribute to the discovery and tracking of these bodies in the solar system. We understand the need for asteroids to be monitored because they can be dangerous to Earth. Tracking potentially dangerous sites is part of the threat elimination projects.
לדמיין
Our physics teacher invited us to join the International Astronomical Search Collaboration.We appreciated her invitation and agreed to participate. We have decided to apply for two upcoming campaigns: All Bulgaria Asteroid Search Campaign /8.03.2019 - 24.04. 2019/ and International Asteroid Search Campaign /27.05.2019 - 27.06.2019 /. Our application was approved.
To accomplish our goal we made up the following work plan:
1.To download Astrometrica software which is used to track familiar and discover new asteroids.
2.To learn how to work with the software before the campaign starts . To download photos which will help us to practice beforehand and make our work easier throughout the campaign.
3. After learning how to operate with the software,to get the knowledge of preparing precise reports.
4.To take part in the selected campaigns ,by processing the submitted photos on time and sending the prepared reports.
יצירה
The campaign All Bulgaria Asteroid Search Campaign was held from 28th March to 24th April and The International Asteroid Search Campaign-from 27th May to 27th June. We formed teams of 3 participants. Every week the organisers uploaded photos of sections of the celestial spherе. We distributed and processed them. Every team got 3 or 4 packages of photos a week which they had to review carefully. We worked with the specially created software Astrometrica, provided to us by the organisers of the project. The software animates the 4 photos of a certain package-they change quickly one after another. In this way the moving objects become visible. Asteroids are located closer to the Earth than the stars and by the time the photos are taken they visibly change their location against the background of the starry sky. Our task was to find and mark all of those objects. Astrometrica checks in the database of the Centre for small planets if they’re familiar. If there is no data for an asteroid with those coordinates, the observer gives it fictitious name, a combination of numbers and letters. For every set of photos a report is made, containing the names and coordinates of the potentially new asteroids. The report is formed according to the requirements and is sent to the organisers of the project. In result of our work on the two projects we have prepared 84 reports.
שיתוף
A part of the reports with the results from the All - Bulgaria Asteroid Search Campaign.
