News: Research
FT South, LCO and Armagh Observatory Combine for Uranus Breakthrough
An international team of astronomers led by Apostolos Christou at Armagh Observatory has used Faulkes Telescope South to make the first ever observation of one of the satellites of the planet Uranus passing in front of another.
The observation was made on the night of 4th May by Marton Hidas and Tim Brown, of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCO), Santa Barbara, California, using FT South at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia. This work involves a collaboration between scientists at Siding Spring, Las Cumbres, Armagh and Cardiff University.
FTN helps astronomers detect the ‘YORP effect’ for the first time
Astronomers have seen an asteroid change the rate at which it spins for the first time, and shown that it is due to a theoretical effect predicted but never before seen. Observations from FT North on Maui formed a part of the data used by astronomers at Queens University Belfast to demonstrate the existence of the ‘YORP effect’.
Publication of FT Observations by Oundle School
Mark Wells, a teacher at Oundle School, Northamptonshire has been included as an author of a paper recently published in the prestigious "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society" journal. His observations of a binary star system with FT North were included along with data collected by a group led by Matt Burleigh at the University of Leicester.
As well as having Mr Wells listed as an author, the pupils of Oundle School are thanked for their contribution in the acknowledgements of the paper. Section 2.1 of the paper details the contribution made by the school and shows how their observations contributed to the knowledge of the system as a whole.