Moment Of Pride: Two 14-Year-Old Girls From Surat Discovered Earth-Bound Asteroid ‘HLV2514′

New Delhi: Two 14-Year-Old girls from Gujarat’s Surat have discovered an Earth-bound asteroid ‘HLV2514′ which is expected to pass our planet in the near future. The asteroid is presently near Mars and its orbit is expected to cross that of Earth in about one million years’ time, according to SPACE India.

DISCOVERY ALERT!
We are proud to announce VAIDEHI VEKARIYA SANJAYBHAI and RADHIKA LAKHANI PRAFULBHAI, two students of P.P. SAVANI CHAITANYA VIDYA SANKUL (CBSE) from Surat with the help of SPACE-AIASC discovered a new Asteroid which is a Near-Earth Object named HLV2514. pic.twitter.com/HXpOvrwxNY

— SPACE India (@Spacian) July 25, 2020

Students of Class 10 at Surat’s PP Savani Chaitanya Vidya Sankul, Vaidehi Vekariya Sanjaybhai and Radhika Lakhani Prafulbhai, discovered the object as part of an asteroid search campaign conducted by SPACE India along with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a NASA-affiliated citizen scientist group. During this two-month-long project, the images of the asteroid were taken by Pan Starrs telescope in Hawaii and students used advanced software and techniques to look for asteroids.

It is then that the two girls stumbled upon the asteroid, after analysing the images, which was confirmed by the IASC Director J Patrick Miller.

Gujarat: Vaidehi Vekariya & Radhika Lakhani, std 10th students from Surat have discovered an asteroid which is named HLV2514. Vaidehi says, "We discovered this object as a part of All India Asteroid Search Campaign. It is presently near Mars&is expected to cross earth in future" pic.twitter.com/lKFspTih3i

— ANI (@ANI) July 29, 2020

Vaidehi said, she is looking forward to the opportunity to name the asteroid and she wants to become an astronaut. Meanwhile, Radhika was quoted in the report as saying that she was working hard on her education and she doesn’t even have a TV at home so that she can concentrate on her studies.