From Fossils to Stars: Stony Brook’s Turkana Basin Institute Expands Its Horizons

At the Turkana Basin Institute(TBI) in northern Kenya, researchers have spent the past 20 years studying the origins of life on Earth, and discovering the fossils that tell the story of our ancestors. Now, they're turning their eyes to the skies.

A telescope once used to photograph a NASA rocket's collision with an asteroid has transformed Stony Brook University's TBI field station into an unexpected gateway to the cosmos.

The telescope first arrived at TBI in 2022 as part of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test(DART), a global experiment to test whether a spacecraft could alter an asteroid's trajectory. Because of Turkana's prime geographic position and remarkably clear skies, TBI was selected as one of several sites around the world to capture the impact. The telescope, which was installed and is owned by the University of Edinburgh, was deployed for observation of the NASA mission and has remained at TBI under the university's ownership.

"That telescope became the seed for something much bigger," said Kenyan entomologist and evolutionary biologist Dino Martins, former director of the Turkana Basin Institute. "From that single project, an entire astronomy program has grown - one that connects high-level science with education, training and opportunity."

Under the leadership of Lekshmi Rajagopal, lead astronomer atTBI, the astronomy initiative now serves a dual purpose: advancing research while training the next generation of African scientists and educators. "The 40cm optical telescope at TBI is the largest optical telescope in Kenya," Rajagopal said. "Since its installation in 2022 by the University of Edinburgh, it has opened up the skies to young Kenyans and Africans."

Through partnerships with the Development in Africa through Radio Astronomy (DARA) program, TBI hosts workshops and hands-on training for students and teachers from across the continent. "Through the DARA program, the telescope has served students from Madagascar, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Zambia, Mozambique and Kenya," Rajagopal added. "It has also served the local community, bringing cultural astronomy patrons to meet with modern astronomy, and training local teachers in basic astronomy concepts."

Turkana's geography offers unique advantages for astronomy. With minimal light pollution, low humidity and vast open landscapes, the region provides some of the clearest night skies in the world. But TBI's astronomy team sees its mission as more than scientific.

Martins explained that the project is pioneering a co-production model of knowledge that integrates Western science with the indigenous astronomical understanding of the Turkana people, who have observed and interpreted the stars for centuries.

"Looking at the stars is one of those universal human experiences," Martins said. "The people of Turkana have their own deep, scientific relationship with the night sky. We're working to bring those perspectives together, to learn from both the telescope and the stories."

Building on that vision, Rajagopal said her team is now using images taken with the telescope to measure astronomical seeing at the Ileret site, an initiative that could pave the way for installing a larger aperture telescope for advanced research and training. "TBI's placement in one of the darkest regions in Kenya gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the institute's primary pillar: research facilitation in a new and undeniably frontier science," she said.

TBI's astronomy initiative also contributes to terrestrial science. The Institute has recently installed three remote weather stations in collaboration with the Kenyan Optical Telescope Initiative (KOTI), a project using meteorological data to identify suitable sites for a future research-grade optical telescope in Kenya. The data collected will be publicly available, advancing education and research across the region.

The astronomy program also supports TBI's internship and attachment program, which gives young scientists hands-on experience in data analysis, instrumentation and environmental monitoring, addressing the need for youth opportunity in Kenya's growing science sector.

- Beth Squire