St. Hugh’s pupils explore worlds beyond

Thursday, June 14, 2007

St. Hugh’s pupils explore worlds beyond

NASA and the National Space Society partner with schools to learn about planets outside Earth’s galaxy

by Marcus Ngbea | Staff Writer

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Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

St. Hugh’s Catholic School seventh-grader Alyssa Howard, 13, of Greenbelt examines the extra-solar planet exhibit at NASA Goddard Visitor Center with her father, Bret Howard, at the unveiling June 5. Howard was among 90 pupils from the Greenbelt school who decorated and researched the planets.

Seventh-grader Alyssa Howard of Greenbelt can truly say she has held the whole world — or worlds — in her hands.

Howard, 13, is one of 90 St. Hugh’s Catholic School pupils who took part in a pilot program created by NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor Center and the National Space Society (NSS) entitled ‘‘Worlds Beyond.” The pilot program, which culminated June 5 with an exhibit constructed by the students, was intended to expose children to a growing field of astronomy – exploring planets outside Earth’s solar system, called extra-solar planets.

‘‘The first extra-solar planet was discovered in 1995,” said George Whitesides, NSS executive director. ‘‘So this field is ever-changing and exciting because new planets are continuously being discovered.”

Anita Krishnamurthi, NASA education and public outreach lead of the astrophysics science division, said the program was successful and ‘‘allowed [students] to have fun and be creative with it.”

She said the program would expand to more schools next year.

‘‘NASA and NSS will sit down over the summer and determine how we can get more schools involved. At this time, we don’t know how many, but we do want to have this program ready for the beginning of the school year,” Krishnamurthi said. ‘‘We definitely want to work with more Prince George’s County schools.”

Pupils at St. Hugh’s were grouped into teams and painted 20 extra-solar planets and the poles that they were mounted on. The colors used reflected the different materials of the planets, such as gas or dust.

‘‘Learning about these extra-solar planets was really cool because I was able to know about something most people have no idea about,” Howard said. ‘‘I actually want to be a cosmologist and study stars.”

Greg Rothgeb, 11, of Bowie was most amazed to learn that there are planets much larger than Jupiter, the largest planet in Earth’s solar system.

‘‘The hardest part in researching the [assigned extra-solar] planet was finding material and information on it, because this is so new to not only us but astronomers.” Rothgeb said.

As the sun went down, each small bulb atop poles filled the courtyard area with fluorescent colors, imitating the planets outside Earth’s galaxy.

‘‘Looking at the different colors was really cool at night,” said Katrina Delvillar, a St. Hugh’s sixth-grader.

The miniature planets will be displayed throughout the grounds of the NASA Goddard Visitor Center until the fall.

Three other schools in Columbia, Baltimore and Rockville participated in the pilot program.

To learn more about the Worlds Beyond program, call program director Adam Esposito at 202-429-1600 or visit jwst.gsfc.nasa.gov⁄worldsbeyond.html.

E-mail Marcus Ngbea at mngbea@gazette.net.

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