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A team of undergraduates at the UW has discovered nearly 1300 previously unseen asteroids.

Five freshmen and sophomores used computer software to analyze images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in 2005 and 2006. The Sloan Survey is an ongoing project to create a three-dimensional survey of a quarter of the night sky — or a million galaxies and quasars — using a 2.5-meter telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico.

The students, who at the time were participating in the UW Department of Astronomy’s Pre-Major in Astronomy Program (or Pre-MAP), were supposed to be looking for supernovae. These exploding stars are key to solving such cosmic puzzles as stellar evolution and the size of the universe.But instead of exploding suns, the students found asteroids in their assigned viewing field.

While initially frustrated, the students decided to use the opportunity to actively hunt for the elusive space rocks, recording information on the orbits and color of the asteroids. Both sets of data are useful for determining if the asteroids contain similar material and if they came from a larger object. They tracked the movement of the asteroids through the star field over periods of several minutes, as seen in this image. 

“We were all given about 50,000 objects to analyze,” said Kathryn Smith, one of the students on the Pre-MAP team and now a sophomore majoring in environmental studies. She said that this data was then submitted to the Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center at Harvard University for verification.

After three years, if enough additional data is collected, each asteroid can be named by its discoverer. Beyond simply getting the chance to name asteroids, the students gained valuable research experience.

The exposure to serious science at such an early point in their academic careers is invaluable, said Eric Agol, assistant professor of astronomy and the program’s faculty advisor.

“In astronomy it is almost a requirement now to have some undergraduate research experience to be accepted to a graduate program,” he said. “So we are giving these students the necessary preparation for the more complex research that is taken on as a graduate student.”

The students agree, but added that the relationships and contacts were just as valuable as the research time. “I loved the entire experience, said Kenza Arraki, now a junior majoring in physics and astronomy.

“It was wonderful to have been introduced to such a close community during my first quarter at the UW,” she said.

“The ties that I made with my peers as well as grad students and faculty have helped me find more opportunities for my future than I anticipated.”

More information on the students’ discoveries can be found here, in the UW’s press release.