Surat girls discover near-Earth asteroid ‘HLV2514’ which will pass Earth in distant future

Two Surat girls helped discover a near-Earth asteroid, which has been christened as HLV2514 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Both the girls, Vaidehi Vekariya Sanjaybhai and Radhika Lakhani Prafulbhai, are studying in PP Savani Chaitanya Vidya Sankul in Class 10 and discovered the asteroid as a part of an international campaign. 

They had participated in a two-month science programme called the ‘All India Asteroid Search Campaign 2020’ which was conducted by SPACE India in collaboration with International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) and Hardin Simmons University in Texas. Space India announced on its social media page that the near-Earth object (NEO) is currently near the planet Mars, and will evolve into an Earth-crossing asteroid in the distant future.

“We congratulate both the students and teachers for the tremendous discovery,” said the institution.

Vaidehi and Radhika used the Pan Starrs telescope in Hawaii to discover the NEO and took images of the asteroid with its high-grade CCD cameras, and higher Field of View. Congratulatory messages poured in for the girls on social media with netizens calling it a proud moment for all of us.

Read: NASA Warns Of Huge Asteroid 2020 ND, 160 Metres In Diameter, To Approach Earth On July 24

'Mini-moon'

Recently, Kacper Wierzchos and Theodore Pruyne, astronomers at the Catalina Sky Survey, discovered a possible ‘mini-moon’ about the size of a car orbiting the Earth. After locating the asteroid, it was named 2020 CD3 but was deemed a temporary one which, probably, would not last long. 

Astronomers believe that the newly discovered mini-moon will be gone by Spring and what's even more surprising is the fact that it has been orbiting Earth for at least three years without being noticed. Astronomer Kacper Wierzchos tweeted a video showing the mini-moon. In another tweet he mentioned, 

"The object has a diameter between 1.9 - 3.5 m assuming a C-type asteroid albedo. But it's a big deal as out of ~ 1 million known asteroids, this is just the second asteroid known to orbit Earth (after 2006 RH120, which was also discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey)."

Read: Arriving December This Year, Japan's Asteroid Probe Hayabusa2 To Open Knowledge Trove

Read: Comet, Asteroid & Meteoroid Flying By Earth In 2020; Know How They Differ From Each Other