Wednesday, April 29, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
7
photo by Jim anderson
rima givot and a few students from sisters high school who will be
helping space scientists to look for new anomalies in deep space.
Sisters to look into
deep space
By Jim Anderson
Correspondent
Rima Givot, Ron
Thorkildson, and Thomas
Jefferies, all from Sisters,
attended a recent RECON
(Research and Education
Collaborative Occultation
Network) workshop in Pasco,
Washington, to learn how
to see objects in the Pluto
region of the heavens.
RECON is involving 60
communities all along the
West Coast (from north-
ern Washington to southern
Arizona) in attempting to
discover more information
about distant solar system
objects as far out as Pluto in
the Kuiper Belt and beyond.
Very little is known about
these objects, called TNO’s
(Trans-Neptunian Objects)
and KBOs (Kuiper Belt
Objects). But the Kuiper
Belt isn’t really a “belt.” Its
a bunch of objects that fall
into distinct populations dis-
tinguished by their orbits and
surface hues. The objects
are so faint and so cold at
first all astronomers could
do was detect them and then
try to calculate their orbits.
Discovering what they are
and what they’re doing is one
of the goals of RECON.
According to the lead sci-
entist of the RECON proj-
ect, Dr. Marc Buie, the area
involved with this study has
been virtually undisturbed
since what some people call
“The Big Bang.” Buie and
his research partner, Dr. John
Keller feel — with the data
collecting tools available for
deep space investigations —
this is a good time for scien-
tists to begin such a study,
and they want to enlist the
help of citizen scientists of
all ages.
Hence the three-day
training session for Givot,
Thorkildson and Jefferies.
The study will go on for
over a year and is funded by
a $1 million grant from the
National Science Foundation
(NSF). The grant will pro-
vide most communities with
telescopes and camera equip-
ment which will be used to
capture and record an object
passing in front of a star in
deep space. From this data,
astronomers may be able to
gather more clues as to what
took place when the solar
system was created, and from
what.
Buie’s idea is to cre-
ate a network of communi-
ties every 50 km — a total
of 3,000 km up and down
the western edge of the U.S.
— so we can learn about
KBOs as small as 100 km
in diameter. While we can’t
see these objects, even with
most telescopes, we can learn
about KBOs by observing the
occultations of known stars
(when the asteroid/object
passes in front of a star and
blocks our view of the star).
The Sisters group will be
using Thomas Jeffries’ tele-
scope for the time being.
Depending on how the proj-
ect goes, Givot’s hoping her
team will be able to purchase
their own telescope next
year.
No matter how the tele-
scope funding goes, Givot
sees the RECON proj-
ect offering an “awesome
opportunity for collabora-
tion between local commu-
nities.” She points out there
are telescopes in La Pine,
Sunriver, Bend, Redmond,
Sisters, and Culver/Madras,
and plans to involve the high
schools through the science
processes and astronomy
classes, as well as the Sisters
High School Astronomy
Club.
Rylee Funk, a student in
Givot’s class who is look-
ing forward to the RECON
project said, “The RECON
project is an amazing oppor-
tunity, and I am so excited
to get to contribute towards
the discoveries that could be
made!”
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