Along with 26 other students from 22 different countries, I’ve been selected to participate in the Vatican Observatory Summer School in June! Yippiee!!

“The What?”, you’re probably wondering… Well, the Vatican Observatory Summer School is a summer school on observational astronomy and astrophysics held every two years at the Vatican Observatory which is located at the papal summer residence about 30 kilometers South-East of Rome, Italy. Every two years about 25 students of many different countries in upper university classes or in the early years of their graduate studies are selected to partcipate in the Summer School. At least one third of the students comes from non-industrialized countries, and only 3 students per country are allowed.

This year the summer school is about extrasolar planets (planets outside our own solar system) and brown dwarfs (stars too light to burn hydrogen, also known as ‘failed stars’), a subject I already have some experience in, since I did my Bachelor Research Project on one type of extrasolar planets. During these four weeks in June and July, two lectures will be given each morning, along with evening seminars by the Vatican staff and visiting astronomers.

During the course of the school, we will also have to present a short paper on our research or the research of our home institution. Other activities will include laboratory exercises, use of the Observatory computers for data reduction and image processing, and use of astronomical databases. There will also be opportunities for observations with on-site 40 cm refractor and 60 cm reflector telescopes. Field trips to visit sites of historical interest to astronomy will also be included.

I’m really looking forward to this new experience :). Now I just need to find some funding…