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CU-Boulder offering high school seniors experience in asteroid tracking [Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.](Daily Camera (Boulder, CO) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 31--If a stray asteroid were to threaten Earth someday soon, it's possible a high school student could have a hand in spotting it. The University of Colorado will host 36 of the nation's top high school students beginning next summer to image, measure and track near-Earth asteroids using the university's telescopes. The asteroid research is the key project for students taking part in the international Summer Science Program, which enables some of the nation's top high school students to experience college-level education and do cutting-edge celestial mechanics research. Students will attend daytime lectures on calculus, software development, astronomy and physics during the six-week program. Each group of three students will also pick an asteroid, measure its size and position and write software to predict its future orbit around the sun -- including the possibility of a crash with Earth, according to Summer Science Program executive director Richard Bowdon. The Summer Science Program will select the students, hire faculty and choose guest lecturers for the program, and CU will provide furnished housing, meals, classroom access and training and support services for Sommers-Bausch Observatory's telescopes as well as computer labs. "We're very excited to come to Boulder," Bowdon said in a news release. He is also a Summer Science Program alumnus and software engineer. "Everybody has been extremely supportive, and the facilities are perfect for our program, especially the telescopes right on campus." The program admits high-achieving students readying for their senior years in high school. One group of 36 students will be doing hands-on astronomy at the Sommers-Bausch Observatory on the CU campus, while a second collection of students will be at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. "We see this as a tremendous opportunity to share the expertise of CU-Boulder's faculty and students and our telescope facilities with some of the best and brightest high school students anywhere," said CU Provost Russell Moore. "The Summer Science Program has been shown to be a life-changing experience for past students from around the world, and we hope the activities these students undertake at CU-Boulder will inspire them to go on in college to study science or engineering." The program, which regularly features top scientists and engineers as lecturers and guest speakers, including Nobel Prize winners, is the only summer enrichment program managed and largely funded by its own alumni, Bowdon said. There were 754 applicants last year for the 72 student slots available. For more information on the program, including fees and financial aid opportunities, visit summerscience.org. Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, [email protected] or twitter.com/chasbrennan ___ (c)2014 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) Visit the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.) at www.dailycamera.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |