Month-long campaign to discover new asteroids

After discovering several asteroids, including the rare Trojan, in its previous outings, an NGO working towards popularising science will launch its third edition of a nationwide asteroid hunt in July, officials said Thursday.

A month-long workshop - All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) - from July 9 to August 13 will provide an opportunity to students and amateurs to discover new asteroids, engaging with the forefront of research.

"We will provide specialised and advanced training through workshops and online training to facilitate the participants to understand the advanced astronomical software to find asteroids present in the solar system," said the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) in a statement.

Space has been organising such camps since 2010 and is providing training to students and amateur astronomers for asteroid hunting. The project was started with the aim of increasing the love for science, astronomy and scientific research in Indian students.

"The project has provided opportunities to more than 600 students and amateurs in India to discover asteroids. Till now, 15 new asteroid discoveries have been made which have helped international agencies to catalog these objects so that the threat from the asteroids can be tackled with success," a Space official said.

"Indian students have beaten students all over the world in asteroid discoveries, and India is now looked upon as a leader in bringing revolutionary changes in the field of astronomy and space science education and research," Sachin Bahmba, CMD, Space, said.