Girl Power Talk's Budding Scientists Find Early Asteroids

Mohali, Punjab Jan 5, 2023 (Issuewire.com) - The International Asteroid Search Program 2022 was a month-long campaign organized by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC). A citizen science program that provides high-quality astronomical data to citizen scientists around the world, it saw the participation of many students from India and across the globe.

As part of the program, the citizen scientists participate in real hands-on astronomy such as making original discoveries including finding asteroids and Near Earth Objects (NEO).

In collaboration with IASC, two students from Girl Power Talk's Project Umeed. participated in the search. The students got training from experts of Smartcircuits Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Young researchers Naina and Ruby from Government Primary School, Mohali, discovered two early asteroids under this project. Their findings are displayed on the International Astronomy Search Collaboration (IASC) site.

"The widespread misconception is that a telescope is required to see and identify asteroids. We used software that NASA recommended, even though that  would be helpful," says Naina

According to Smartcircuits Innovation team, NASA regularly initiates programs like IASC to track such asteroids. NASA had a special telescope in Hawaii, which takes pictures of the sky at regular intervals. As part of this program, these photographs are sent to the participants. The students used advanced software analysis, spending nearly four-six hours each day. They took approximately one month to look for asteroids and report their findings.

"We process the photos on the software and are able to view parts of outer space that have been photographed. Studying it helps us identify moving objects," Ruby said.

Once a moving object is identified, some tests need to be conducted to identify it. 'A detailed report is sent to NASA through the campaign, and after they conduct preliminary studies, we receive preliminary approval. 

The 'preliminary discoveries' are only the first discoveries of an asteroid, and it will take about a year of observations before a few of them are confirmed as provisional discoveries and are formally recorded. The two asteroids identified by them have been temporarily named P11CfUL, P21BMhQ. NASA will study them in detail, determining orbit, size, and speed, among other details, following which they will be given an official name.

About Project Umeed -

Umeed is an initiative by Girl Power USA in partnership with Girl Power Talk which started taking shape in 2020. After withstanding several hurdles, such as the pandemic, developing the curriculum, earning trust from the parents, and collecting resources, our vision to start a school for less privileged children in our offices in India came to fruition post-lockdown. We aim to empower children by inviting them to attend our in-office school to interact with and learn from our team twice a week. This initiative not only transforms lives but addresses the inequalities that restrict one's capacity to learn. It builds a sense of confidence that evolves the students' outlook on life and provides them with unique opportunities.

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