Marking the year of its discovery, Daksh Malik, a Class 9 student from Shiv Nadar School in Noida, has been recognized by NASA for a “provisional asteroid discovery.” This distinction will enable the young student to choose a permanent name for the asteroid now known as “2023 OG40.”
Space has captivated me… I used to watch all these National Geographic documentaries about planets and the solar system. As Malik told *The Print*, this is almost a dream come true.
Trip to find Asteroids
Under the International Asteroid Discovery Project (IADP), Malik spent a year and a half looking for asteroids together with two of his schoolmates. Started in 2022 when their school’s astronomy club acquaint them with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), their trip begins.
linked to NASA, the citizen science project of the IASC allows people all over the world to help find asteroids. The IADP has more than 6,000 yearly members although just a few find fresh asteroids; it is operated by STEM and Space together with IASC.
As only five other Indian pupils have heretofore found named asteroids, Malik belongs to a small group, the IASC website says.
preferrably a learning experience.
Malik outlined how the three collaborated on datasets from IASC and described the process as a “fun activity.” Calibrating the data, observing celestial things, and finding probable asteroids was done using a software called Astronomica. Furthermore, they studied movement and light releases in order to validate their conclusions.
Laughingly, Malik said, “I felt as if I was working at NASA.”
NASA will need around four to five years to first test and confirm the find. Once validated, Malik will provide the asteroid’s formal identification. For the celestial body, he is considering fun names such “Destroyer of the World” and “Countdown.”
