A team of 6 science communicators from Andhra Pradesh, India have found 4 new near-Earth objects (NEO). They managed to locate these asteroids during a 45-day training program that was organized by the All India Asteroid Search Programme.
The new initiative is a part of the Saptarishi India Asteroid Search Campaign under International Astronomical Search Cooperation that has a NASA grant and support from Vigyan Prasar of Government of India (VIPNET).
Helping citizen scientists make discoveries
The team was led by Meka Susatya Rekha, who also has been awarded as the national best teacher. Besides, Kuchipudi Gurrayya represented the team. The VIPNET assembled other members of the team. They picked K. Kiran Kumar Reddy of Kadapa, M. Suresh of Vijayawada, Neelakantaiah of Chittoor district, and P.V.L.N Sriram of Vigyan Bharati.
The same team will also take part in the Special Asteroid Campaign that is scheduled for August, as a part of India’s 75th anniversary of independence. Gurrayya said that the science communicators and teachers picked for the campaign will bring a paradigm shift to scientific discovery.
15 teams that featured representatives from over 20 states and union territories took part in the Saptarishi India Asteroid Search Campaign held from May 3 to May 28. Gurrayya said that the main aim of the IAC (International Astronomical Search Collaboration) is to offer high-quality data to citizen scientists across the globe mostly captured by telescopes for asteroid search.
Important to track near-Earth objects
Under this Asteroid search program, astronomical pictures captured from Pan-STARRS Observatory are analyzed by citizen scientists, helping them make preliminary discoveries by detecting the asteroids, near-earth objects.
He emphasized that the selected team for the Asteroid Search Campaign had to undergo 45 days of detailed asteroid-hunting training. The team successfully found 4 asteroids near-Earth objects.
He said near-earth objects sometimes come so close to Earth’s orbit because of the gravitational pull that they hit our planet and cause destruction. This makes it really important to keep a track of them. Millions of years ago, a huge asteroid collided with Earth and caused mass destruction, causing the extinction of dinosaurs and loss of biodiversity.
