GLAST Due to Launch May 26, 2008
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, Education.trackback
This has been a big day for space missions. Earlier today Phoenix landed successfully on the arctic plain in the northern polar region of Mars. It is alrady sending back some wonderful images from the Martian surface.
Now news comes through confirming a rumour I heard earlier today. The GLAST (Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) is due to launch from 3 June. This is great news! I’m involved in a project, PULSE@Parkes, which allows Australian high school students to control the 64m Parkes radio telescope remotely over the internet to observe pulsars. The students analyse their observations to determine properties of the pulsars and compare their results with those obtained by other schools. The observations that students obtain also suppprt other programs undertaken by ATNF astronomers including the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array that is seeking to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves. The other key program are observations in support of the GLAST mission. One area of interest to the GLAST team is the study of pulsars that are glitching, showing sudden increase in their rotation rates. Radio observations of pulsars will alert the GLAST team as to potential targets for observation with GLAST. Perhaps some Australian students will make an observation that triggers observations by this new space telescope!
There is a useful and diverse range of educational resources developed by the GLAST Outreach team based at Sonoma State University. Topics include black holes, supernovae and active galactic nuclei.
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