I have a little silver box in my house, connected to my modem, with a sensor that hangs outside a window. It is just one part of a network of silver boxes and sensors that are making up the largest telescope in the world to pick up where the SETI program left off.
ERGO is the Energetic Ray Global Observatory. This is the brain child of Tom Bales, who was inspired by a TED talk. He says:
In 2009, at the TED Conference in Long Beach, CA, Jill Tarter made a wish and challenged the conference attendees: "I wish that you would empower Earthlings everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company." Sitting in that audience, I was captivated by Dr. Tarters talk – she is the real-life astrophysicist upon whom Carl Sagan’s book, Contact, is based. I wondered how I might contribute to this great challenge. Listening to Jill's TED Wish talk, I wondered how my hobby project might expand to engage children "…everywhere to become active participants in the ultimate search for cosmic company." Well, all you have to do is build a bunch of experimental systems and put them in classrooms around the world. But, it turned out there were some big challenges, both technical and organizational. The introduction of the ERGO Energetic Ray Global Observatory represents a first step in achieving that goal.
ERGO is enabling kids all around the world to turn the Earth into a giant telescope. By placing 'pixels' that detect cosmic rays in classrooms around the world, ERGO is turning the surface of the Earth into a giant, rotating telescope. It is about collecting data and observing cosmic ray events sure, but most importantly it is introducing students to the idea of collaborative scientific investigation and exploration. Students across the globe are part of a worldwide, longitudinal, scientific study.
Better yet, the ERGO project is still looking for educators who would like to host a pixel. Grants are available.
Fill out an application at ergotelescope.org/get-involved/