Recently, two of our Y13 Physics students took part in the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad Round 1. Mark and Korben joined 267 students from schools across the country to compete in the 2 hour Astro Olympiad Challenge.
This paper is designed to give students further exposure to problem solving in astronomy and astrophysics, beyond that which they encounter in their A Level studies, and it is meant to be a challenge with questions that might stump many A* candidate students. Section 1 consisted of lots of short questions from which students could answer as many as they wished, with a capped mark of 40 marks. Section 2 had 4-5 longer 20-mark questions, from which students chose just two.
Some of the questions they challenged themselves with included:
- Celestial mechanics (including both circular and elliptical orbits)
- Stellar evolution, black body radiation and magnitudes (including use of logarithms)
- Telescopic optics
- Galactic physics and cosmology
- Observational astronomy
Mark and Korben both achieved a Bronze 2 award, and we are extremely proud of their achievements, efforts, and resilience!
#WeAreProudOfOurAchievements
