• New Chair of Europlanet Outreach Working Group
• 2021 Calls for Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme and Prize now open
• Media and Social Media Internships at EPSC2021
• Space Olympics
• EPSC 2021 Outreach 
• Last chance to enter #PlanetaryScience4All video contest
• SuperLuna! Winners and Gallery
• Europlanet Magazine and CommKit
• EPEC Inspiring Stories
• Mars Collection Educational Resources

In news from partners, we have an update on a workshop with 'Planets in a Room', schools observing an active asteroid and recordings from the IAU Virtual CAP 2021 meeting.

If you would like to share your news, resources, events, or any other outreach-related information with the group in the next newsletter, please email us!

We are delighted to welcome Federica Duras as the new Chair of the Europlanet Society Outreach Working Group. Federica has a master's degree in astronomy and astrophysics and a doctorate in physics. She is responsible for dissemination and teaching for the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome and as editor for the online magazine EduINAF. 

Many thanks to Stavro Ivanovski for all his work in coordinating the very successful programme of outreach activities around the first virtual edition of the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) in 2020.

2021 Calls for Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme and Prize now open

Are you looking for funding to kickstart an outreach or education project related to planetary science? Or have you run a successful public engagement project for which you deserve some recognition?

The Calls are now open for applications for the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme 2021 and nominations for the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2021.

Deadline for submissions is 18 August 2021.

Media and Social Media Internships at EPSC2021

Europlanet is looking for members of the community that would be willing to support the communications team during EPSC2021 through the following internship programmes:

Social Media Internships: Successful applicants for the social media internship will support the social media team in covering live sessions during the meeting. 

Media Internships: Successful applicants for the media internship will support the press office team in preparing materials for the media.

Successful applicants will be paid €400 to cover seven mornings or afternoons of live sessions, or equivalent time on other activities for the meeting.

Deadline for submissions is 16 August 2021. Find out more

Last call for the EPEC-EPSC #PlanetaryScience4All video contest
The Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Communication Working Group is giving all Bachelor's, Master's and PhD students involved in planetary science the opportunity to showcase their research through a 4-minute video contest called #PlanetaryScience4All.
 
The deadline for submissions is 1 August 2021. Submit your entry now.

SuperLuna! Challenge: And the Winner is…

In May's SuperLuna! Challenge, Edu INAF and Europlanet asked the public to send in observations of our satellite around the closest Full Moon of the year. This winning entry by Roberto Vaccaro and all submissions can be viewed on Flickr.

EPEC Inspiring Stories 

In July's EPEC Inspiring Outreach Story, Melissa Mirino explained how the extraordinary experiences of 2020 inspired her to launch #PlanetaryScience4All, a video contest to bring together the early career community. This story is an extract from the first Issue of the Europlanet magazine.

In June, Sara Motaghian, a doctoral student at the Natural History Museum (London), told us about her experience organising ‘Roving with Rosalind’ for classrooms across the UK.

You can catch up on all the Inspiring Stories and find out more about the Europlanet Early Careers (EPEC) Outreach Working Group here.

To submit your inspiring outreach story, or if you haven't done any outreach yet and you need some advice, write to epec.outreach@gmail.com.

The full set of Europlanet school resources exploring the possibilities of life on the Red Planet are now online. Find out more

News from the community

After the Covid lockdown period, Edu INAF has started face-to-face activities with 'Planets in a Room' again. On 9, 10 and 11 July we took part in the "Galassica" astronomical festival, where we held a workshop which was attended by about 25 people, mostly teachers, but also families with children and science communicators.

The workshop was split in two parts: a show presenting the Solar System using Planets in a Room, then a practical session during which the audience was able to follow the assembly of the projection system and the creation of the shows. In total, the workshop lasted about 2 hours, with more than positive feedback from the public, and several requests for more information to purchase and use Planets in a Room.

Primary schools in South Wales have used a 2-metre robotic telescopes to observe an asteroid that has developed a long tail – very rare behaviour normally only associated with an icy comet. Measurements were then sent to the Minor Planets Center in the USA, which calculates the orbits of asteroids and comets and monitors their activity. Asteroid 2005 QN173 recently began to develop a tail and is being studied with great interest by professional and amateur astronomers around the globe. 

Pupils from three primary schools (St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Bridgend; Ynysowen Community School, and Mount Street School, Brecon) are part of the ‘Comet Chasers’ project, funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and led by the Faulkes Telescope Project (FTP) with the Techniquest science discovery centre. Find out more