THE GLOBAL JET WATCH IN NUMBERS:

13+

Years of Operation

342,000+

Single Observations

3000+

Nights of Robotic Telescope Operation

Transforming Science, Transforming Young Minds

The Night Sky is Dynamic and Ever-changing

Outer space is teeming with violence and dynamic activity: black holes rip matter out of stars, ultra-fast jets squirt out from near black holes, the stars chase one another around elliptical tracks, with each encounter generating seismic consequences, and sometimes, suddenly, stars explode!

Needing to Go Around The Globe

Explosions and interactions in the night sky can play out around the clock, hour-in hour-out. The Global Jet Watch has set up research-grade telescopes separated in longitude so there is always one of them in darkness. The world spins, we watch outer space.

Engaging Young People in Science, Engineering, and Technology

Students at the schools that host our telescopes get to experience authentic astronomy for themselves. This isn’t some simulated experience, this is for real at night: lights off, stars on. They see a research-grade observatory involves tuned technology, enhanced engineering and super science.

“The Global Jet Watch has already delivered round the clock observations of rapidly varying sources which have changed our views on how they behave. No less important is its success in attracting young women to science, locally in the observatories and globally by exhibiting such a wonderful model of how to do this.”

Professor Roger Blandford FRS FRAS
Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; Shaw Prize Laureate

“The Global Jet Watch uniquely combines excellence in science with empowerment for school students, around the world.”

Professor Brian Schmidt AC FRS FAA
Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University and Nobel Prize winner in 2011

“I applaud this initiative—it is excellent for science, and excellent for the schoolgirls who will have access to good telescopes. What a brilliant idea!”

Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRAS
Discoverer of Pulsars; Recipient of the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

“Katherine Blundell has done as much to bring top-flight science to the public, young and old, as anyone I have met in 50 years of broadcasting.”

Dr Robyn Williams FAA, AO
Science Journalist and Broadcaster,
Presenter of the ABC Science Show since 1975

“The Global Jet Watch is a brilliant concept involving schoolchildren in the frontiers of science at the same time as learning about the Universe.”

Professor Phil Charles FRAS
Former Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory

“Katherine’s engagement with the international observing community has been spectacular in both its scientific results and its influence on young people around the globe. Her presence, both remotely and in-person, has introduced young people, and especially young women, in remote areas to the joys of scientific research, changing lives in dramatic ways.”

Dr. William D. Phillips
Physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Nobel Prize winner in 1997

“Our connection to the universe is made all the stronger because of the amazing vision and drive of Professor Katherine Blundell.”

Jon Culshaw
English actor

Deciphering the Dynamic Universe