HST Observations

Students participated in suggesting the subject of observation

"The Great Planet Debate" introduced the first phase of the project, in which students educators and astronomers corresponded via e-mail about which planet to observe with the 3 Hubble orbits dedicated to Passport to Knowledge. After a great deal of intense and passionate debate, students together decided to allocate 2 orbits to Neptune and its giant storms, and 1 to little-known Pluto.

Questions kids asked during the debate.

Students gathered information from observations

This was information about our own observations of Neptune and Pluto. They were scheduled to take place the week of March 3 and marked a historic first with the HST dedicated to K-12 research. These were YOUR observations. The data from these observations was seen for the first time ever on the live television broadcast on March 14.

Also you should know that on February 28 and 29, Planet Advocate Reta Beebe was busy with observations of Jupiter.

Below you can view the details of the observations:


To see our Neptune/Pluto observations type in Program ID #6846
To see Planet Advocate Reeta Beebe's Jupiter observations type in Program ID #6009

Students interpreted results of observations

Interpreting the scientific results of our observations took place in April. This involved K-12 students doing real science having used one of the world's foremost science tools.