NASA : Students to spot new asteroid and name it

 

Source :Edu Times :Friday, May 21, 2010

New Delhi: As part of a unique astronomy project connected to US space agency NASA, in the next three months, many students across India will search for new asteroids and name them.

The data collected by the students will contribute to NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program. It will offer students a chance to go through exclusive sky data and search for their own asteroids.

The project will run between May 17 and June 30 and from July 1 to Aug 13 and will be introduced in India for the first time with about 30-45 schools involved in it. This year 11 countries on four continents are participating.

“The process involves using astronomical data analysis software to go through exclusive data files of the sky provided by the IASC to each school,” C.B. Devgun, SPACE director, told the sources.

It will enable students to work in parallel with professional astronomers and expose them to actual research being done in astronomy. Behind involving school students in the project is the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), an international educational outreach programme.