This month we are celebrating 15 years of the Faulkes Telescope Project – over the course of the next couple of weeks we will showcase some of the highlights from these past 15 years, hear from schools who have used the telescopes and meet the team who spend their time bringing the Universe to your classroom!

Today we are looking at the highlights from 2018…

———————————————————————————————————-

Student Levin Belli from Germany, discoverer of a new asteroid!

In January, German student Levin Belli from Pascal High School in Münster in Germany discovered a new asteroid. The asteroid is called 2018AM4 and is believed to have a diameter of 2 kilometres and an orbital period of around 5 years.

Levin used Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii and was able to take seven days worth off data. Later that month, his discovery was accepted by the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, USA.

Later in the year, he went on to win first place in Earth and Space Sciences at the regional competition of “Schüler experimentieren” in the House of Technology in Essen.

More school successes…

In October, Pascal High School used the 1-metre LCO telescopes and Faulkes Telescope South to observe comet 46P/Wirtanen. These observations followed-up predictions that the comet would re-appear. 46P is part of a small group of comets whose behaviour is a little less predictable, partly because of the amount of water that they appear to lose along their paths. You can read more about 46P at http://wirtanen.astro.umd.edu/.

Comet 46P (Wirtanen) imaged by students at Pascal-Gymnasium in Munster, Germany

This work was complimented by Helen Usher of the FT Team and the Open University who co-ordinated observations from other schools. One particularly successful group was led by teacher, John McGrath, of Dodderhill Girls School, near Droitwich Spa in the UK. Their images were used by the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of a press release which can be found at … http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2018/12/Students_analysing_Comet_46P

Students and teacher John McGrath, of Doddershill Girls School, UK, who helped with the campaign to image comet 46P

New website

Also, in October, the Faulkes Telescope Project website underwent a revamp – we hope you like it  – it’s still a work in progress so if there’s anything you’d like to see on here then please contact us and let us know!

New project

Finally in October, the Faulkes Telescope Project was announced as a partner in the TrioSciCymru project. Funded by the Welsh Government, this project aims to deliver STEM education resources to a group of schools throughout Wales.

As well as using the Faulkes Telescopes, the students will get experience virtual reality, 3D space shows, meteorites and Mars based activities.