14-year-old boy from Noida discovers asteroid, Nasa asks him to name it

14-year-old Daksh Malik, who studies in class 9, identified an asteroid in space. Nasa confirmed and recognised the asteroid and temporarily named it "2023 OG40"

A young boy from Uttar Pradesh's Noida has discovered an asteroid in space and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has confirmed and recognised it.

 

Nasa also asked the class 9 student, Daksha Malik, who studies at Noida's Shiv Nadar School to name the asteroid. The kid has a few names in his mind such as “Destroyer of the World” and “Countdown”.

 

According to The Print, Daksh didn't achieve this alone, he was supported by two of his friends who joined him in this discovery.

 

The three joined the International Asteroid Discovery Project (IADP) by NASA, a program affiliated with the US Space Agency's International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC).

 

The project aims to allow students to analyse the data for potentially discovering new asteroids. There are at least 6000 requests from children from across the globe every year. 

How did Daksh find the asteroid?

Daksh, along with his friend, has been working on this project for more than a year and Nasa shared datasets as part of the astronomy club at their school.

 

They were assisted by a software called Astronomica to look for celestial objects indicating the asteroid. They identified the object that seemed to be an asteroid and immediately notified for further verification.

 

After months of notifying the officials, Nasa finally confirmed the Daksh's discovery. "I felt like I was working at NASA," said Daksh.

How the discovery happened?

The astronomy club invited students to join the International Asteroid Discovery Project (IAPD) and this became the breakthrough moment for Daksh. This project aims to identify new asteroids by analysing telescope data from across the world. 

 

Daksh enthusiastically made efforts to discover an asteroid, which is temporarily named "2023 OG40" after the time and date it was observed. 

 

Once Nasa completes all confirmation processes, Daksh will have the honour of naming the asteroid. 

Why do asteroids matter?

The asteroids are the ancient remnants of the early solar system helping to find clues about the formation of planets and other celestial bodies. Most asteroids located in the asteroid belt can be found in other orbits. The largest asteroid is Vesta, which is 329 miles in diameter.

 

The discovery of the asteroid made Daksh more enthusiastic about the fascinating objects in space.