The idea behind the Whole Earth Telescope is to gather near-continuous observations of a target star as long as it is visible from Earth. Since it is always dark somewhere, the targets should be under 24-hour watch, provided weather or technical problems don't interfere with observations. "When you need to study a target for long periods of time, you really have no choice but to collaborate if you're on Earth," said Travis Metcalfe, who worked on Whole Earth Telescope projects as a graduate student at University of Texas. Unlike other collaborative observation programs, Whole Earth Telescope managers attempt to analyze the data real time so that the observations can be tweaked if necessary. "I'm looking at data from India right now," Provencal told Discovery News. Waiting in the queue are observations from Texas and the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Observations of WDJ1524-0030 should last until June 11. Not too much is known about the star, which was discovered in 2004 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. "Stars of this type have all kinds of variability," Metcalfe said. Related Links: |
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