Chennai, December 06, 2016: Vishwath Ramachandran of class 9 and Vishweshwar Ramanakumar of class 10 of Hiranandani Upscale School (HUS) in Kelambakkam, have made two provisional asteroid discoveries as part of a nationwide campaign conducted by International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) program, United States, which aimed to popularize astronomy in the country. Students got to access images of the sky taken by 24 inch and 34 inch telescopes positioned in Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) Observatory.
The provisional discovery has been confirmed and officially recognized as an asteroid discovery by the international agencies concerned. The asteroids have been given designated numbers and will be named after the students.
SPACE, a Delhi-based NGO which acts as the nodal agency for organizing asteroid search campaign facilitated the students with necessary orientation and training in advanced data analysis and astrometrical software, which helps compare astrometrical images to discover moving objects and also offer hands on practice to hunt for asteriods.
The ecstatic students of Hiranandani Upscale School said, “We are excited to make the discovery and this has truly given us a boost to follow through with our interest in astronomy. We hope to further pursue programs in space science in the future.”
About HUS
The objective at HUS has been to groom students into responsible citizens of the country, and the world. The school infrastructure at HUS, has been designed keeping in mind the ideology and objective of fostering holistic growth and learning for the children. The wide and balanced curriculum is designed in a way that will support individual needs of the children. So, they have access to multi-media rooms, audio-visual rooms, outdoor games, libraries, state-of-the art laboratory and of course, one for imagination – a specialized arts department. These facilities will help gauge their interest early so that subsequent efforts can be made to ensure that the children excel in their field of choice.