Comet NEOWISE is keeping humans on Earth busy with their stargazing pieces of equipment while two Class X girls from Surat, India made their own trailblazing once-in-a-lifetime discovery. The two 14-year-olds from PP Savani Chaitanya Vidhya Sankul, Vaidehi Vekariya, and Radhika Lakhani discovered an asteroid, now named as HLV2514 by NASA NEO center. It also holds the potential of crossing the earth someday very soon.
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. These students spotted the asteroid during the study as part of the All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) of IASC, an outreach program of Nasa for space research.
Also Read: Time travel machine of 2020! NASA presents you the most powerful Hubble Space Telescope
NASA says the NEO Asteroid may pass by Earth
NASA is currently observing a lot of Near-Earth Objects passes from our planet. The detection of these asteroids are normally done by Sentry, and the space organization has a dedicated planetary defense system that helps warn the planet in case of any impending meteor attacks.
The 2 girls from Surat, India, used the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii which recently completed 10 years in space while observing the beauty of space. The space rock is very recently spotted against Mars and according to the studies, the asteroid will come very near Earth.
This month we celebrate the 10 years of the Pan-STARRS telescope, which has become one of the leading discoverers of near-Earth objects#PanSTARSS
🗞️Find out more in the attached May newsletter
📩Sign up to get it every month: https://t.co/LKl2Tioo97 pic.twitter.com/VQO960qbGl— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) May 6, 2020
However, the researchers from NASA have confirmed that this space rock is not going to pose a major threat to our planet. It will pass by very close to Earth just like a few other recent asteroids. The two girls from India have however done a great job in terms of space explorations at such a young age.
Also Read: Asteroid attack led to Ice Age on Earth and killed dinosaurs 720 million years ago
This is the first time that young people have come forward to take part actively in space exploration missions which focus mainly on spotting space rocks and asteroids. Earth is safe in the hands of these future scientists who made India proud once again.
Let us know about this in the comments section below! Also, do not forget to join us on our Telegram Channel for instant updates of the science and tech world.
Suryapratim Ray is an engineer, author, robotics hobbyist, and an active Quoran. Being a technical blogger, he covers the good, bad, and ugly of science on a regular basis at Sciencenews18. In addition to his passion for writing, he’s equally keen on learning classical music.