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18-Year-Old Student Discovers Comet Break-Up
astroengine writes "It's an event that any professional astronomer would consider to be a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. But for one 18-year-old British student, witnessing the fragmentation of a comet she was studying became the highlight of a summer work experience program using the Faulkes Telescope Project. However, that was just the icing on the cake; Hannah Blyth of St. Johns College, Cardiff, also assisted in the discovery of over 20 previously unknown asteroids, two of which she discovered herself. It is extremely rare to spot a fragmenting comet, but for an amateur (let alone an 18-year-old student on work experience), this is an incredible achievement."
fair enough a once in a lifetime occurence
it's presumably rare as hen's teeth to see, rather than requiring skill other than basic capability, its more luck
i guess she's gonna wait a while for a another significant spotting, unless she's well ahead in the favour of lady luck
good on her seeing something cool though
Good for her! This is what British science used to be about. The quest for knowledge and discovery is what once made the UK a scientific superpower. The neverending thirst for understanding that cannot be quenched. The burning desire to see further and deeper than has been seen before. The uncontainable urge to explore the unknown. The raging curiosity. The screaming need for enlightenment. The arousal of the inquisitive mind. The yearning for greater power of the mind. The want of all know-how. The needling pain of not knowing.
It is because of these urges that we now know glorious names today, like Francis Bacon, Roger Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, James D. Watson, Francis Crick, and Alan Cox.
There seems to be a growing trend of young amateur astronomers. In 2009, Caroline Moore, a 14 year-old at the time became the youngest person to discover a supernova- http://www.astronomy.com/en/News-Observing/News/2009/06/Profile%20Youngest%20person%20to%20discover%20a%20supernova.aspx. She was then shortly thereafter surpassed by the 10-year old Kathryn Aurora Gray http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/04/girl-10-becomes-youngest-to-discover-supernova/ If one is at all old this thing starts to really make one feel unaccomplished by comparison.
One thing you might notice is that all of these people are female. I tentatively don't think this is a coincidence but at the same time don't think this is a strong example of the growth of females in science (although it certainly should help inspire other young girls). There's been for a very long history of women astronomers. While the specific example prior to about 1850 there are isolated examples like Caroline Herschel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Herschel but in the second half of the 19th century a large number of women went into astronomy related work. Examples include Antonia Maury who did some of the first careful analysis and cataloging of stellar spectra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Maury and Annie Jump Cannon who followed on Maury's and others work making systematic the correlations between spectra, temperature and brightness, a crucial issue for trying to estimate the distance of any start that is more than a few hundred light years away http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Jump_Cannon. And then you have Henrietta Swan Leavitt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Swan_Leavitt who discovered Cepheid variable stars which allow one to extend distance estimates even farther, to outside our own galaxy. One thing that is important to notice is that a lot of these early female astronomers were doing work careful cataloging and classification work that was actually considered women's work and considered to be not that important by many. Thus, they got a lot less credit in their lifetimes than male astronomers. So at least that aspect has changed a lot.
The cost of astronomy programs of this sort is actually tiny. The program in question uses a series of semi-automated or fully automated telescopes which are distributed around the world. Once the telescopes are constructed the marginal cost to keeping them running is small. Moreover, these telescopes are being used for other projects as well, such as imaging stars, looking for recent supernova, and careful imaging of supernova discovered by other means (such as the very recent very close supernova in M101). This sort of study helps give us a lot of fundamental knowledge. Data about comets and asteroids helps us find out in detail what the early solar system was like. Work with far away stars like Cepheid variables lets us map the farthest reaches of the universe. Imaging of supernova also contributes to that task but also allows us to test the laws of physics with fine precision, getting information about things like dark matter and the like. Given the high return rate of this sort of thing and the comparatively low cost, it definitely makes sense for the UK to spend money on this.
Sounds too much like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart%27s_Comet
... it had set its Facebook status to 'single'.
Wikipedia's article on Maria Mitchell, who discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in 1847, observing from the rooftop of her home in Nantucket.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
FTA: Fragmentation in comets is rarely observed, but can occur when they are closest to the sun and develop spectacular tales of gas, dust and ice particles. The tale originates from the icy core (or nucleus), so when it heats up, vapor from sublimating ices are outgassed into space, dislodging dust and other material.
Shouldn't that be "tails" and "tail", or some different definition of the word "tale" I wasn't previously aware of?
Yes but for the one who loses preparation still has met opportunity. Or something.
-- Cheers!