Here’s your opportunity to be a part of an astronomical observing project, including a trip to the world’s premiere observatory site – Mauna Kea, Hawaii.  You’ll want the full package, which includes a detailed tutorial on asteroids and organics in the solar system, making a hands-on contribution to developing the observing program and writing the observing proposal, traveling to the telescope, and conducting the observations with Josh. You’ll also assist with the processing and analysis of the data afterward. 

Or skip the academics and just travel to Mauna Kea with Josh for the observations.  Note that the full package will also give you co-authorship of a scientific paper!

The Mauna Kea observatories are at 14,000 ft elevation, so there are some physical limitations – no one with known heart problems or trouble with high elevation is allowed.  Typical observing runs last 3 nights, but could be as long as 6.  Accommodations are located at 9,000 ft on the flank of the dormant volcano, and are dormitory style.  Cafeteria style food is provided as is phone and internet connectivity.

Planetary scientist Josh Emery sweats the small stuff. The larger bodies of our solar system – planets and moons – have been tortured and twisted in childhood by their internal heat, and therefore offer only a distorted view of the conditions under which they formed. Small bodies like asteroids, on the other hand, haven’t undergone such metamorphosis. Consequently, they provide good evidence about what happened in our neighborhood more than 4 billion years ago.

Josh uses the Spitzer Space Telescope to study asteroids in the outer solar system (beyond Mars) by examining their infrared spectra. Many of these get brighter as one looks deeper and deeper into the red end of the spectrum, and this is thought to be due to complex organic molecules that coat their surfaces. Josh is using a variety of ground-based telescopes, as well as Spitzer, to verify this hypothesis. If asteroids are wrapped in materials that are essential to the start of life, then perhaps the ingredients of life are common in many planetary systems.

For more information on how to adopt this scientist
Please call us toll free at 1-866-616-3617 and ask for Karen Randall.