SCHOOLCHILDREN will commandeer the Hubble Space Telescope for three orbits next month while it takes a closer look at Neptune and Pluto. The project is part of a programme backed by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, operators of Hubble, to allow amateur astronomers to pick targets for the telescope.
The project began last year when four 鈥減lanet advocates鈥� presented the cases for observing Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to students across the US. After weeks of discussion on the Internet, the students agreed to observe Neptune鈥檚 changing cloud patterns for two orbits and devote the third orbit to Pluto. Details of the observations will be broadcast in an hour-long television programme next month. A second television programme will announce the results in April, and they will also be posted on the project鈥檚 Web page at .