HOU Student Research

International Asteroid Search Campaign

Astronomical Research Institute
Hardin-Simmons University
Hands-On Universe
Asteroid Discoveries:

Home page for International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC):
http://iasc.hsutx.edu

The International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC pronounced "Isaac") is an educational outreach program provided at no cost to participating high schools and colleges. Using images taken the night before with the 24" and 32" telescopes at the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) Observatory, students make original discoveries of Main Belt asteroids and important observations that contribute to the NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA).

If you do not have the software Astrometrica downloaded and installed on your school's computers, it is available at the IASC web site. It has the Astrometrica software, configuration files, installation guide, instructions for finding asteroids, and practice image sets. Teachers who prepare ahead of time, download and install the software, and learn how to successfully use it to produce reports that ultimately goes to the Minor Planet Center (Harvard) with students' discoveries and NEO measurements, have students who succeed in IASC. Their students discover new asteroids and make important NEO observations. The key to students' success in an IASC asteroid search campaign -- and it's not hard to do -- is to:

1. Be able to use Astrometrica to conduct an automated and manual search for asteroids.
2. Be able to clearly distinguish between a true and false signature of an asteroid.
3. Be able to use Astrometrica to produce a clean and accurate MPC Report.

2010 Feb 25Cape student makes mark on universe. By ROBERT GOLD. Excerpt: Kelsie Krafton, a senior at Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, hopes to add her initials to the names of the two asteroids she has discovered...
...Two years ago, Kelsie Krafton took her first physics class. Now, she's discovering asteroids and soaring toward a career in astrophysics.
As a then-sophomore at Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, Kelsie breezed through her first physics class. She was bored by how easy it seemed. But one day, she flipped on a television show about astrophysics and was hooked.
"It kind of added a whole new dimension to the subject," she said of viewing astrophysics as filled with adventure and exploration. Kelsie decided she wanted to pursue a career in the field.
This week, the 17-year-old Falmouth resident received official word that she's discovered two asteroids through a global space exploration project. The International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a network of research institutes and science laboratories, confirmed that the high school senior had found two new asteroids.
The program's founder, Dr. Patrick Miller of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, e-mailed Kelsie's Sturgis math teacher, Randy Carspecken, with the news.
Kelsie, who submitted her asteroid findings on Valentine's Day, found out about the accomplishment when she checked her laptop Tuesday night. She ran around her family home in celebration.
"This is something (she'll) never forget," Carspecken said of the discovery....

2009 Oct 30. From: Patrick Miller. Greetings from the International Astronomical Search Collaboration. The All-Texas Asteroid Search Campaign and NEO Confirmation Campaign are currently on hold. The weather has been overcast and raining for the past five nights at the ARI Observatory. The Full Moon occurs on Monday night so the likelihood remains slim that image sets will be available in the coming days. Should this change, you will be notified immediately.
Unfortunately astronomy is at the mercy of the weather and the Moon. For the past week it seems that both have conspired to slow down IASC and your students from making important discoveries and observations. But be patient...the situation should begin to improve in the coming week.
The following are the asteroid discoveries made so far during the current campaigns:
2009 TH2 - Dankov, Hsu, Chae, & Hennig, Thomas Jefferson HS VA 10/11/09
2009 TD2 - K. Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science Bulgaria 10/11/09
2009 TH5 - Dankov, Pannill, & Schmidt. Meredith College NC 10/11/09
2009 TS10 - Dankov, Pannill, & Schmidt, Meredith College NC 10/11/09
2009 UX2 - Dankov, Kirby, & Diaz, Ranger High School TX 10/18/09
2009 UA6 -Foglia, Anderson, McAbee, Craig, & Kilgo, May High School TX 10/18/09
2009 UZ5 -Dankov & Sawberger, Tarrant County CC TX 10/18/09
2009 UC18 - K. Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science Bulgaria 10/18/09
2009 UN14 - Dankov, Kirby, & Diaz, Ranger High School TX 10/18/09
2009 UM20 - K. Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science Bulgaria 10/25/09
Don't forget, too, that R. Watanabe from Shizuoka University (Japan) made an NEO confirmation of 2009 TA1 on October 11th and H. Chun from Cranston High School East (RI) made a virtual impactor observation of 2009 TE10 on October 18th.

2009 Oct 20. From: Patrick Miller. Greetings from the International Astronomical Search Collaboration.
Four...count them...four new Main Belt asteroids have been discovered in the October 11th image sets. This is an all time record for IASC!! Congratulations go to:
Students: Asteroid Discoveries:
Kolyo Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science
Catherine Pannill, Meredith College (NC)
Dr. Bill Schmidt, Meredith College (NC)
2009 TH5
2009 TS10
Kolyo Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science
D. Hsu, Thomas Jefferson High School (VA)
K. Chae, Thomas Jefferson High School (VA)
L. Hennig, Thomas Jefferson High School (VA)

2009 TH2

Kolyo Dankov, Bulgarian Academy of Science 2009 TD2


2009 Oct 20. From: Patrick Miller. Greetings from the International Astronomical Search Collaboration.
Congratulations go to D. Hsu, K. Chae, & L. Hennig from Thomas Jefferson High School (VA) for the assisted discovery of 2009 TH2. Also congratulations go to C. Pannill & B. Schmidt from Meredith College (NC) for the assisted discovery of 2009 TH5. Both of these objects are new Main Belt asteroids.
IASC has joined with the Sierra Stars Observatory Network to do follow-ups on original asteroid discoveries. The Minor Planet Center (Harvard) requires follow-ups within 7 days in order to receive credit for these discoveries. You can see how successful this has been since there have been three discoveries within the image sets from October 11th. During the previous campaign with 19 days of image sets, there were no discoveries!!

2009 Oct 13. From: Patrick Miller. IASC congratulations are in order for observations and discoveries:
--R. Watanage from Shizuoka University (Japan) made the confirmation of the near-Earth object (NEO) 2009 TA1. Along with K. Dankov from the Bulgarian Academy of Science, this student made an important observation confirming the orbit of this NEO.
--K. Dankov discovered two new Main Belt asteroids, 2009 TH2 and 2009 TD2.
--Students from Belmont HS, Cordova HS, Folsom Lake College Meredith College, ZSO Toruniu, Colleyville Heritage HS, and Tarrant County CC made NEO observations that were reported as part of the NASA Near-Earth Object Program (Jet Propulsion Laboratory).

2008 Dec 16. A total of 50 NEO observations made by students participating in the All-China Asteroid Search Campaign have been been reported to the Minor Planet Center (Harvard). For a complete list of the 50 NEO observations go to "Discoveries & Observations" at the IASC home page.
Youlin Dong & Qing Shao made an NEO observation of 2005 WD1. Zheng Li from Beijing Huiwen High School made a NEO confirmation of 2008 XU2.

2008 Nov. Current list of IASC discoveries and observations is at http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Discoveries. The number of new asteroid discoveries remains at 23 but the list of NEO observations is long and includes many of IASC students. The current campaign continues until December 5, 2008, and we expect still more original discoveries and important contributions to the measurements of the impact threatening near-Earth objects.

2008 Jun 13 Update From: Patrick Miller: We have a list of schools participating in the 2007-2008 asteroid campaigns (plus one pilot supernova campaign). We've changed the name of IASC from International Asteroid Search Campaign to International Astronomical Search Collaborative (still calling it "Isaac"). The plan is to completely develop the supernova search campaign and including search campaigns for Kuiper Belt objects and comets.
Since October 2006 at the start of IASC, 97 schools have participated from 9 countries. The countries include China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Russia, and United States.
Students from these schools have discovered 82 asteroids, made 2 comet confirmations, 6 virtual impactor observations, and hundreds of near-Earth object confirmations. As far as the most number of discoveries, I don't have this recorded but I believe the schools from Poland hold this title. Some schools have discovered as many as 4 asteroids, as I recall.

March 2007 Here's what happens when parents get excited about their kids finding asteroids--article in their local paper (Sacramento, CA). Long quotes from Patrick Miller, as well as Glenn Reagan and his students -- way to go! --Alan
________________________________________
News article "Teens' far-out find" 24 March 2007 about discovery
by Lycia Vang with two of her Cordova High classmates [Sacramento Bee].

Click on image below to magnify.
Asteroid discovery

            IASC is a collaboration of Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, TX), Lawrence Hall of Science (Hands-On Universe, University of California at Berkeley), Astronomical Research Institute (Charleston, IL), Global Hands-On Universe Association (Portugal), and Astrometrica (H. Raab, Austria).

            During times of Moon-less skies, the ARI takes images along the ecliptic using its 0.81-m telescope.  The following day these images are prepared and made available to the participating schools.  The schools go to HSU Blackboard where they download the images and use the software package Astrometrica to produce a plate solution and identify all of the moving objects.  Astrometrica checks to see which of the objects are found within the MPC database.  Those objects not found are identified as new discoveries.

            In order to complete the discovery, the ARI must take a follow-up image within seven days.  When this is completed, the MPC officially recognizes the discovery and credits the students having conducted the analysis.

            Search campaigns are run for 30 days at a time.  The first was conducted October-November 2006 with five participating schools.  The next campaign was February-March 2007 with 15 participating schools.  A third campaign was held April-May 2007, again with 15 participating schools.
During the October-November 2006 asteroid search campaign, the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO; Chile) provided real-time images from a 4-m telescope that were used to make original discoveries.  These came from the “The W Project” ESSENCE.*

            A key goal of these campaigns is to establish ongoing astronomy research programs at high schools and colleges.  These schools will be able to directly access the images from the Astronomical Research Institute on an ongoing basis, and integrate these searches into their science curriculums.

            Teachers interested in having their students participate in future asteroid search campaigns can contact J. Patrick Miller (e-mail, or 325-670-1393).           

J. Patrick Miller
Educational Reach-Out Programs in Astronomy (EuROPA)
Holland School of Science & Mathematics
Hardin-Simmons University
Abilene, Texas


*More recently the Sierra Nevada Observatory (Spain) provided images from a 1.5 m telescope of Pluto-sized KBOs.  HSU students analyzed these images building light curves for 2005 FY9, the third largest of these objects found 50 AU from the Sun.

Lawrence Hall of Science | © 2013 | Updated November 23, 2012