Science Nation: Young Astronomers to Investigate the Outer Solar System

With support from the National Science Foundation, astronomers Marc Buie and John Keller are involving citizen scientists from throughout the western United States to participate in the Research and Education Cooperative Occultation Network (RECON). The project has provided telescope equipment and training to 14 small western U.S. communities north and south of Reno, Nevada, where night skies are clear and dark. When RECON students look out at the night sky, they look way out to the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy debris that litters the Solar System out beyond Neptune. The network is looking to determine the sizes of Kuiper Belt objects as they pass in front of distant stars. Part of the National Science Foundation Series “Science Nation.”

(Source: DCMP)