18-Year-Old Student Discovers Comet Break-Up

astroengine writes "It's an event that any professional astronomer would consider to be a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. But for one 18-year-old British student, witnessing the fragmentation of a comet she was studying became the highlight of a summer work experience program using the Faulkes Telescope Project. However, that was just the icing on the cake; Hannah Blyth of St. Johns College, Cardiff, also assisted in the discovery of over 20 previously unknown asteroids, two of which she discovered herself. It is extremely rare to spot a fragmenting comet, but for an amateur (let alone an 18-year-old student on work experience), this is an incredible achievement."

Re:lucky person gets lucky

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds to me like she pushed the shutter button and happened to capture something remarkable when analyzed by an expert.

Apparently she not only took the photos but was also the one who first noticed something out of the ordinary, according to the first article. Of course she was lucky to be looking at the right patch of sky at the right moment. But luck is always part of the equation in this kind of discovery, and we do tend to make a point of mentioning who was looking. This shows that taking part makes a difference. That's pretty exciting.

Re:Having solved all other problems

[JoshuaZ]

The cost of astronomy programs of this sort is actually tiny. The program in question uses a series of semi-automated or fully automated telescopes which are distributed around the world. Once the telescopes are constructed the marginal cost to keeping them running is small. Moreover, these telescopes are being used for other projects as well, such as imaging stars, looking for recent supernova, and careful imaging of supernova discovered by other means (such as the very recent very close supernova in M101). This sort of study helps give us a lot of fundamental knowledge. Data about comets and asteroids helps us find out in detail what the early solar system was like. Work with far away stars like Cepheid variables lets us map the farthest reaches of the universe. Imaging of supernova also contributes to that task but also allows us to test the laws of physics with fine precision, getting information about things like dark matter and the like. Given the high return rate of this sort of thing and the comparatively low cost, it definitely makes sense for the UK to spend money on this.

Somewhere, Maria Mitchell is smiling

[dpbsmith]

Wikipedia's article on Maria Mitchell [wikipedia.org], who discovered "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in 1847, observing from the rooftop of her home in Nantucket.

Re:Very young people and astronomy

[Will.Woodhull]

Young eyes are better at recognizing novel patterns than highly trained older eyes. As a person gains experience in a highly visual field like astronomy, they are more likely to regard something they had never seen before as a variant of what they already knew. A youngster to the field is more likely to bring the same image to someone else's attention: "What do you think this is? Could it be a Carolian snark?"

Women in the US and I believe in Europe (and possibly across the entire human species) invest less ego in discovery activities than men do. Women are less likely to be anxious about making mistakes, and are therefore more likely to show unusual findings to more experienced persons.

While many conclusions can be drawn from these two assertions, the obvious one is that observatories should actively recruit young, naive, nubile women to do all the night time work of taking the first look at all visual data. This would probably be the single most effective way in which astronomy could attract new males to its studies.