Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by smp »


From CNN:
"New Delhi (CNN) - Two Indian schoolgirls have discovered an asteroid which is slowly shifting its orbit and moving toward Earth.
Radhika Lakhani and Vaidehi Vekariya, both studying in 10th grade, were working on a school project when they discovered the asteroid, which they named HLV2514."

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/india/in ... index.html

Congratulations to Radhika and Vaidehi! Well done!

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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by Shabadoo »


Indeed, well done!
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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by KingNothing13 »


Neat - good for them. I hope they keep their interest up, and more importantly, are encouraged to keep their interest up.
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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by Unitron48 »


Like hearing stories like this! Best wishes to both!!

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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by helicon »


Very impressive work for youngsters. I hope they stick with it and make their way to grad school in their chosen field of study.
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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by OzEclipse »


Space India is a truly remarkable organisation. Sachin Bamba is the wealthy benefactor who decided to use his personal wealth to create and fund this remarkable organisation.

They educate and give opportunities to young and extremely bright kids. If the kids are from wealthy families, families contribute to cover costs, if the kids are bright but from poorer families, they are subsidised or sponsored by wealthier families. They have links with over 1000 schools and have engaged with over a million children through over 10000 outreach events. I had the pleasure of addressing some of these kids at one such event in new Delhi almost 10 years ago.

Full disclosure: I spent many years as a unpaid member of their advisory panel on solar eclipses so I willingly admit to being somewhat biassed fan of what this organisation does.

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Re: Indian schoolgirls discover asteroid moving toward Earth

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Post by dcrowson »


This 'discovered' asteroid is actually part of a citizen science program - http://iasc.cosmosearch.org/. Data from the PAN-STARRS nightly asteroid runs is given to school groups and others to teach about asteroids and how to analyze the data. Typically, several students with go through the data with Astrometrica and produce reports. I'm not trying to take away from the 'discovery' but it isn't exactly what it seems...

If you have any interest in this, the Astro League Target NEOS! program is a good place to start. People that work on it tend to be invited to participate. This is a good way to get free access to Astrometrica and some good data to work with. After going through one of their campaigns, my small group stayed on and we've been going through data for almost two years.

Dan
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