Two Surat girls discover asteroid; Nasa confirms

SURAT: While comet NEOWISE is keeping earthlings busy with its rare appearance, two Surat Class X girls made their own trailblazing once-in-a-lifetime discovery recently.
Two 14-year-olds from PP Savani Chaitanya Vidhya Sankul – Vaidehi Vekariya and Radhika Lakhani – discovered an asteroid, now christened as HLV2514 by Nasa upon confirmation. It also holds the potential of crossing the earth some day.
According to the training institute, SPACE, where the duo trains for astronomical studies, Nasa has sent a confirmation mail about the two Class X girls’ rare discovery.The students spotted the asteroid during the study as part of the All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) of IASC, an outreach programme of Nasa for space research.
In an email to the institute, the IASC director, Dr Patrick Miller, stated, “In the last campaign, your team reported HLV2514 as a new asteroid. It is, in fact, a near-Earth object (NEO). This NEO is near the planet Mars, and over time (~10^6 years) will evolve into an Earth-crossing asteroid. Mars-crossing asteroids are called Amors. Earth-crossing asteroids are called Apollos. Congratulations!!"
Receiving the adulation of Miller, a professor of mathematics at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene in Texas, the girls are overjoyed not only with their discovery but at being recognized too. “We had tagged around 20 objects of which this one proved lucky. We have given it a random name at present and we may get an opportunity to name the asteroid once its orbit is confirmed by Nasa. It may, however, take a few years’ time,” duo told TOI.
Vaidehi's father is in the textile business, while Radhika's father is in the business of computer peripherals. Vaidehi's family hails from Bhavnagar while Radhika's family is from Amreli district.
It all began by examining multiple images by Pan-STARRS Telescope in Hawaii on a software and identified the moving object that the duo spotted moving near Mars, which incidentally till now was hidden. IASC facilitates students with images and software to study, and the participants identify these objects and tag them with numbers. They then submit the details and after verification IASC confirms a rare discovery.
"It is the first time in Gujarat and after four years in the country that an asteroid has been discovered," claimed Akash Dwivedi, educator at SPACE.
From participation in the programme to learning — the entire study process was from home amid the pandemic conditions.