The First Pan-STARRS Asteroid Search Campaign: Astronomical Discovery Program for High Schools Students

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Scientific paper

Centered at Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, TX), the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) has conducted successful student-based asteroid search programs (or campaigns) for several years. Since 2006 these campaigns have engaged 3,000 high school students per year from 250 schools worldwide in 40 different countries. Students have made thousands of observations of near-Earth objects and hundreds of provisional discoveries of Main Belt asteroids, all reported to the IAU Minor Planet Center (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory). The first telescope of the Panoramic Survey and Rapid Response System (PS1) is currently conducting the largest optical survey ever attempted in terms of sky coverage. In support of the education and public outreach component of its mission, the PS1 Science Consortium (PS1SC) is collaborating with IASC to utilize PS1 images in IASC-led student asteroid search and discovery campaigns. This talk presents the results of the first IASC-PS1 campaign conducted during October-December 2010 involving 21 schools from Texas, Hawaii, and Germany that led to 500 preliminary discoveries of Main Belt asteroids. Plans for future campaigns will also be presented including the March-May 2011 campaign involving 32 schools from Texas, Hawaii, Utah, Washington, Germany, Poland, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Given the unique wide field features of the PS1 images, the potential for growth of this education and public outreach program can reach 12,000 students per year coming from 1,000 high schools worldwide using far less than 1% of the image data collected by PS1.

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