Young astronomers in Dartford observe 4.5 billion year-old asteroid (From News Shopper)

Young astronomers in Dartford observe 4.5 billion year-old asteroid

9:39am Friday 3rd February 2012 in Education News By Alan Woods

ASTRONOMERS at a Dartford school took part in a Europe-wide observation of an asteroid last month (January).

Pupils at the Leigh Technology Academy were part of a six-school observation of asteroid ‘585 Bilkis,’ a 4.5 billion year-old rock the size of Greater London.

Students aged between 13 and 16 remotely operated a telescope in Arizona to take a series of 150 images of the rock across a four hour period.

The images are now being examined to discover more about asteroid’s structure, data which will be presented by students to an astronomy conference in Poland in March.

College leader Dr Conrad Stevens said the image through the telescope was similar to viewing a light reflected from a 0.5mm grain of sand from a mile away.

He said: “By doing real scientific research our aim is to enthuse children about science – it’s also helping to build bonds with other European countries.”

The scientific study is a part of ‘In Orbit with Europa,’ a two-year project bringing science pupils together across Europe.