CASPER
New member
Kathryn Gray, a 10-year old amateur astronomer from New Brunswick, Canada, has become the youngest person to discover a supernova. She made the discovery over this past weekend, and her find was quickly verified by two other amateur astronomers based in the U.S. before the news started spreading around the globe.
The find is significant because supernovas in general are rather rare. The last one verified in our galaxy, for instance, was believed to have taken place more than 140 years ago, as suggested by leftover debris. Gray's supernova is located in a galaxy known as UGC-3378, which is more than 240 light-years from Earth. UGC-3378 was first imaged early last year, and Kathryn compared these images with what she saw through her telescope this weekend to discover the changes that indicated the supernova.
Scientific discoveries by amateurs, particularly by children, are in general a big deal. Even though his find was accidental, 9-year old Matthew Berger made headlines last year when he found the remains of an ancient human relative in the soil of South Africa. The boy had wandered a short ways from his father's archaeological dig before finding what turned out to be the specimen's collarbone sticking up out of the ground. Eventually two sets of remains were discovered, dated to around 2 million years ago. They are thought to be a completely new link in our evolutionary chain.
In December of last year, a classroom of 8- to 10-year-olds in the U.K. became the youngest people to have a scientific study published in Biology Letters, a publication of the highly prestigious Royal Society in Britain. The project was originally an offshoot of a school program called "i scientist" that was designed to get kids to do their own scientific research. Centered around the foraging habits of bumblebees, the study found that the insects are far more flexible about their tendencies than originally thought.
The find is significant because supernovas in general are rather rare. The last one verified in our galaxy, for instance, was believed to have taken place more than 140 years ago, as suggested by leftover debris. Gray's supernova is located in a galaxy known as UGC-3378, which is more than 240 light-years from Earth. UGC-3378 was first imaged early last year, and Kathryn compared these images with what she saw through her telescope this weekend to discover the changes that indicated the supernova.
Scientific discoveries by amateurs, particularly by children, are in general a big deal. Even though his find was accidental, 9-year old Matthew Berger made headlines last year when he found the remains of an ancient human relative in the soil of South Africa. The boy had wandered a short ways from his father's archaeological dig before finding what turned out to be the specimen's collarbone sticking up out of the ground. Eventually two sets of remains were discovered, dated to around 2 million years ago. They are thought to be a completely new link in our evolutionary chain.
In December of last year, a classroom of 8- to 10-year-olds in the U.K. became the youngest people to have a scientific study published in Biology Letters, a publication of the highly prestigious Royal Society in Britain. The project was originally an offshoot of a school program called "i scientist" that was designed to get kids to do their own scientific research. Centered around the foraging habits of bumblebees, the study found that the insects are far more flexible about their tendencies than originally thought.