Hunting for Asteroids

Worksheets and other Resources

• A Powerpoint Show Introduction to Asteroids.
  Ideal for the first part of the workshop. The show is a "self-running" show, and does not require Powerpoint to be installed. However, if you have Powerpoint 2003, then you may prefer to use this more advanced version, which also includes some extra animations and can be edited. (Powerpoint show is 1.6MByte, the advanced version is 2.5Mbyte)
   
• Worksheets:
  We have developed several worksheets for a range of age groups and abilities. All are given here as Word documents and so can be modified to suit your particular needs:
  • Worksheet A: Aimed at KS2 to KS3. (88 Kbyte)
  • Worksheet B: Aimed at KS3 to KS4. (144 Kbyte)
  • Worksheet C: Additional tasks, suitable for Gifted and Talented groups. (460 Kbyte)

• Teacher Notes.
  Additional background information on the project for teachers, including answers to questions you may be asked about asteroids and meteors. (Microsoft Word Document, 148Kbytes)
   

• If you are interested in delving into the subject of asteroids in more detail, there is a wealth of information on the Internet. For example:
  • www.solarviews.com/eng/asteroid.htm provides an excellent introduction.
  • www.nineplanets.org/asteroids.html goes into a bit more detail, with lots of links to additional material.
  • The Minor Planet Center is the offical site for information on all known asteroids. You should note this is a highly technical site aimed at professional astronomers and is not for the faint hearted. However, it does contain some useful odds and ends such as a map, updated daily, of the positions of all known asteroids!
  
  

Software

You will need to use the NSOs special Image Processing Software LTImage has been created for the project. The download and installation instructions are on this page.

Important Note: You will need a username and password to download the software. If you do not have one, you can get one by registering with the NSO.

Observations (Image Data)

The Image Data that you will need both for the workshop and for the subsequent "Hunting" should be downloaded from this page.

The worksheets (above) are set-up to get the pupils to download the data themselves. However, you may wish to download the data for the workshop in advance and store it locally on your system (modifying the worksheet appropriately). This will ensure that you will have no problems with the internet or download permissions for pupils during the workshop.