High School Sophomores Discover Asteroid

Several readers sent us the story of three high school sophomores in Racine, Wisconsin who were just notified that a celestial body they had discovered during a science project has been verified as an asteroid. The students at Racine's Prairie School will be given the opportunity to name the asteroid in about four years. They used a telescope in New Mexico, belonging to a college in Michigan, that they controlled over the Net.

Comments

This is more common than you'd think

[ThreeGigs]

Bob Holmes' website:
http://ari.home.mchsi.com/index.htm/

List of asteroids discovered this school year:
http://ari.home.mchsi.com/mp_discoveries_table_2007.htm/

And some info on the telescope he uses to capture images:
http://bi-staff.beckman.uiuc.edu/~melockwo/telescopes/holmes32/holmes32.html/

Same deal as this article. He uploads pics for students at participating schools to work with.