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phone 919.342.0708 cell 919.656.3251

email rbowdon(at)summerscience.org

Gifted High Schoolers Track Asteroids at Tech

Summer Science Program students complete asteroid orbit determinations

Socorro, New mexico -- In six intense weeks this summer, 36 young scientists used telescopes at Etscorn Observatory to take images of six asteroids, measured their positions precisely, and wrote computer software to calculate their orbits from those measurements. The results of this research will be archived at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Since 1959, bright teenagers from around the world have come to the Summer Science Program (SSP) to spend their days in college-level lectures, and their nights photographing and measuring the speck of light from those distant asteroids. Years and even decades later, many alumni refer to SSP as “the educational experience of a lifetime”. SSP expanded to Socorro last year, with support from New Mexico Tech, Los Alamos National Lab, and Lockheed/Sandia National Lab.

SSP students found themselves in close contact with Tech professors and other prominent guest speakers. For example, they attended presentations by James Randi, the well-known investigator of pseudoscience, and by Cornell University planetary astronomer Dr. Philip D. Nicholson. In addition, students enjoyed behind-the-scenes tours of EMRTC, the Very Large Array, White Sands Missile Range, and Apache Point Observatory.

SSP is operated by an independent non-profit corporation, in cooperation with New Mexico Tech, Caltech, Harvey Mudd College, Pomona College, Stanford University, and UCLA. More information is available at www.summerscience.org.

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