Two school-going students of Vikhe Patil in Pune, who are in the Kalam Centre Asteroid Search Campaign organised by Kalam Centre and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), have managed to discover six new preliminary asteroids. The students, Arya Pulate and Shreya Waghmare were trained to analyse data and spot potential asteroids close to Earth. The report added that a total of 27 asteroids were discovered.
As per a report by PTI, 22 students were selected from across the world. The preliminary discoveries are initial observations of the celestial rocks found in the Main Belt between the Mars and Jupiter orbits. These need further confirmation to go to Provisional status, which usually takes up to 5 years, after which the asteroid can officially be catalogued by Minor Planet Center, International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Srijan Pal Singh, former Adviser to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, and founder of Kalam Centre stated that knowing asteroids around and mapping them is an important part towards understanding and monitoring the celestial objects around the planet.
The International Astronomical Search Collaboration is a citizen science programme aimed towards providing high-quality astronomical data to citizen scientists globally. A free service that allows citizen scientists to make original astronomical discoveries, its primary focus is Asteroid Search Campaigns.