Two teenage girls from Surat, Gujarat have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid, after looking through the telescope images belonging to the University of Hawaii. These two girls, Vaidehi Vekariya Sanjaybhai and Radhika Lakhani Prafulbhahas, who are class 10 students, had discovered the asteroid as a part of an asteroid search campaign. This was conducted by SPACE India, along with International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), which is a NASA affiliated citizen scientist group. The institute is among the few private space education initiatives in India.
The asteroid which is currently called HLV2514 may be officially named only after NASA confirms its orbit. This has been found to be present near Mars, and its orbit is expected to cross Earth in about 1 million years.
The two 14-year-olds had received training from SPACE India prior to this. The girls had used specialised software to analyse the images snapped by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii, and made the discovery in June, SPACE India said.
Asteroids and comets pose a potential threat to Earth, and scientists discover thousands of them each year. In 2013, an asteroid heavier than the Eiffel Tower exploded over central Russia, leaving more than 1,000 people injured from its shockwave.