Spectrum Scientifics Blog

It seems that 14 year olds are in the news this week, and mostly for good reasons. One 14 year old boy in Germany was in the news claiming he was hit with a meteorite, which if true would make him the first person to be struck by a meteor since the late 50’s. Unfortunately, there are some problems with the story, at least as how the media presents it. Such as the speed of the meteorite, the damage it would do, and so on. It might be the case that the core of the story is true, but the details have been messed up through the reporting.

Much more based in reality is the story of Caroline Moore, a 14 year old amateur astronomer from upstate New York, who discovered a very rare supernova. Using just an amateur astronomer’s telescope, Caroline was able to find this cosmic wonder.

Caroline Moore’s tale is the inspirational one since it once again demonstrates that in the world of astronomy, the amateurs can actually discover and do more than the professionals. See, most professional astronomers spend a lot of time studying various celestial objects but rarely get the chance to go out and actually look at them. Caroline Moore’s telescope is described as ‘relatively small’ which is pretty undefined, but could mean anything from a 4 inch refractor, to an 8 inch dobsonain, to a 12 inch Cassegrain. All we know is that it is probably a telescope you could also buy. Her story is not unique, most comets are discovered and named after the amateur astronomers who find them (Hale-Bopp among many others). Many new asteroids are also discovered each year by amateurs as well, who get the rights to give them their semi-official nickname.

Think about what you could find!

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Filed under: Astronomy