There have been three newsy events in the world of NITARP recently...  (NITARP partners small groups of educators with a professional astronomer for a year-long original research project.)

(1) SOFIA has started their first "Basic Science" flights. When they enter regular operations, the plan was always to get educators on board. Recently, they decided that they would accept educator applications for these early flights too. They just announced their first educators, and two of the inaugural six are NITARP alumni! Cris DeWolf was part of the 2008 class, and Margaret (Peggy) Piper was part of the 2010 class. Way to go, guys!

(2) Since the NITARP projects are original research projects, no foolin' (not canned labs!), not every one results in anything more than a poster presentation, but some do. The science work from last year's CG4 team was significant enough that the team was able to write a refereed journal article. It's recently been accepted to the Astronomical Journal, and is slated for its July 2011 issue. The article has been posted to astro-ph as well. The punchline is that we found 16 new young stars, where 'new' means 'new to science, at least on this planet' (as opposed to 'newborn baby stars', though they are indeed young).

(3) The NITARP application for the 2012 class is now available! Tell your friends, your colleagues, your teachers, and/or consider applying yourself! They are due in September.