YERKES OBSERVATORY

ASTROPHYSICS ACADEMY FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS

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Students and teachers from 20 Wisconsin and Illinois schools will explore the universe with the Hubble Space Telescope, and a variety of other research instruments as participants in the newly created Yerkes Observatory Astrophysics Academy for Young Scientists.

Forty teachers, and 250 students in grades 3 to 8, will participate in the program. The teachers will receive professional development for their involvement in the program. Teachers in the Academy will plan, and propose, a research project for the Hubble Space Telescope, then analyze the resulting data.

In addition, there may be opportunities for amateur astronomers to collaborate with the participants in order to collect useful data in related space projects. The activities are all part of Yerkes' efforts to engage a wider audience in the scientific adventure. They follow a philosophy once stated by Nobel laureate Riccardo Giacconi, the first director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. Said Giacconi: "The dazzling discoveries by scientists remain curiously sterile unless they become assimilated in the general culture and become part of the intellectual heritage of mankind."

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SUGGESTED PROJECTS FOR AMATEUR-PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION

1. Imaging Jupiter (cloud patterns) and its moons Himalia and Elara (light curves) in support of the New Horizons Jupiter encounter on February 28th, 2007.

2. Stellar occultation of Pluto on March 18th, 2007.

3. Stellar occultation of Pluto's moon Nix on March 22nd, 2007.

For further information please contact: Harald.Schenk@uwc.edu

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Members of the Sheboygan Astronomical Society at YERKES OBSERVATORY during a past anniversary of the facility.