Asteroid hunters get hands-on help

Students from all over Europe are in Cork this week to scour the heavens for doomsday asteroids as part of an EU youth astronomy event.

Regina Mundi College in Cork is hosting the Comenius-funded initiative, involving students from schools in France, Portugal, Poland and two schools from Britain.

The visitors arrived in Cork on Sunday — the start of Science Week — and spent yesterday at the city’s award-wining Blackrock Castle Observatory.

They examined images of exo-planets — planets that orbit other stars — and attended workshops on astro-photometry, or asteroid hunting.

The students were welcomed to the lord mayor’s office in the afternoon before enjoying a guided city tour, and a visit to the Crawford Art Gallery.

They will visit UCC’s geology department and astrophysics department for lectures and experiments today.

But tomorrow is set to be the highlight when they have been cleared to control the INO robotic telescope in Arizona from a laptop in the Regina Mundi physics lab.

The telescope is being used to track the 300-metre ‘planet-killer’ Apophis asteroid, which was identified in 2004.

Nasa said at the time that it has a one in 223 chance of hitting Earth in 2029.

But extra observations have shown that it will pass by at the small, but safe, distance of some 36,000km.

Regina Mundi physics teacher, John Murphy, said he hoped the exchange visit would make science fun.

“The basic aim is to encourage more young people to get involved in science, to make it fun, and to make it more hands-on and research-based,” he said.

The exchange will conclude on Thursday when the students are due to visit Fota Wildlife Park for lectures on life and living organisms.