Patience, high-powered telescopes could unlock clues to the cosmos

IOWA CITY - New telescopes, dark skies and lots of patience could help University of Iowa astronomers scan the cosmos for active asteroids, a recently discovered space object whose characteristics fall somewhere between a rocklike asteroid and an ice-packed comet.

In the past 10 years, scientists have discovered some asteroids are more like comets than previously thought, said Robert Mutel, a UI astronomy professor. These active asteroids emit faint jets of water or ice, which has scientists wondering about their origin and how many exists. Once identified and analyzed, this primordial material could offer 'fossil evidence” of how and when the solar system formed, he said.

'It requires a lot of telescope time to look for these things," Mutel said. "There're only a dozen of them now known. That's one area we can use this facility (in Iowa City) and the one down in Arizona."

This research is one of the potential uses for new twin telescopes - dubbed the Gemini telescopes, one was erected this fall on campus, and the second to be assembled next spring 1,500 miles away at an observatory in Sonoita, Ariz. More important, the school hopes the new tools provide students hands-on access to research-grade equipment for their own exploration of quasars, planets, the sun and other marvels of outer space.

Students such as Sophie Deam, a junior from Ames, and Landon Kuhlmann, a freshman from Davenport, are learning to find and calculate the distance of deep space objects. Mary Feng, a senior from Johnston, is studying the relative positions of stars to earth to determine our planet's sidereal rotation period, or the precise time of a full rotation around its axis. It's less than 24 hours, Feng said.

"We are measuring the distance of these small asteroids heading toward earth," Kuhlmann said. "It really is important to know where it's heading."

Having an observatory with high-powered telescopes a floor up from class, on the roof of Van Allen Hall, is a bonus for the program that is hoping to energize student interest in the once-prominent field of space research.

This fall, UI revamped its long-dormant and outdated observatory atop Van Allen Hall with an 18-foot clam shell dome and three new telescopes, including a $36,000 astronomical telescope, which will be paired with the one in Arizona, along with solar and planetary telescopes. The upgrade was supported by a $200,000 grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, of which $125,000 went to the upgrade.

But Iowa City only has 80 to 100 clear nights a year, plus light pollution, which limits the depth of research from campus, Mutel said. Dark, clear skies are key to penetrating probing into the galaxy and beyond.

The greatest potential for discovery comes from the robotic telescope stationed at the Winer Observatory about 50 miles southeast of Tucson - a remote region that offers 200 clear nights a year, Mutel said. UI has used the observatory since the 1990s, managing the telescope through computers in Iowa City, Mutel said.

After discussing how much more the students could learn if the equipment in Iowa and Arizona matched, the department was urged to apply for, and ultimately won, a second grant from the Carver Trust worth $125,000 in October to replicate the hardware and operating system in Iowa City down in Arizona.

Mutel and some students will travel to Arizona to set that up in May, he said.

The telescope in Arizona will be slightly larger, with a .51 meter diameter optical reflector or mirror - at a little more than 20 inches - compared to a .43 meter diameter - about 17 inches - telescope in Iowa City. The larger the mirror the more sensitive it is, which allows the examination of fainter objects, Mutel said.

The telescopes can take 600 images an night, and the job of researchers is to make discoveries from the images, such as finding those faint trails from active asteroids.

The tedious part of the research - poring through images for barely noticeable marks - is actually done by algorithms that graduate students are trained to write, Mutel said.

"A lot of what you do in science these days is really at the interface of software and hardware," Mutel said. "You build the hardware, but the smarts are in the software. So we train students to write codes to do sophisticated things like this."

The UI program is well-positioned to conduct the more time-intensive endeavors because astronomers have free rein over the telescopes, whereas the most powerful telescopes, which are eight meters - more than 26 feet - in diameter, are highly competitive for even a few hours of research time.

UI is making the observatory and telescopes on the roof of Van Allen accessible to the public at certain times. University students and staff can attend "clear sky" club watch parties on Monday and Thursday nights. There's also a public observing night on the second and fourth Friday of every month.

The observatory also will open for special celestial events, such as solar and lunar eclipses and meteor showers, said Dominic Ludovici, a graduate student who coordinates viewings.

The Leonids Meteor Shower, which occurs every November when the earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle, peaks between the hours of midnight at dawn on Monday into Tuesday, according to the EarthSky.org. It should generate 10 to 15 meteors an hour.

The UI observatory, however, will not be open for this event due to the weather.

Ludovici said the next special event is tentatively the Geminids meteor shower, which should be visible Dec. 12 through 15 with a peak on the overnight between Dec. 13 through 14. At its peak, the Geminids offers up to 150 meteors per hour and is often the highlight of the year, according to SeaSky.org.

Public interest in comets was sparked earlier this week when the European Space Agency landed a probe, called Philae, on a comet.