He felicitated two young Indian astronomers who discovered asteroids in 2010.
Prominent NASA scientist Paul Rosen on Saturday said that India and the US should collaborate more on space research programs as he felicitated two young Indian astronomers who discovered asteroids in 2010 that are now recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
Amanjot Singh and Sahil Wadhwa discovered the main belt asteroid numbered as 2010 when they participated in the All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) conducted by New Delhi-based Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) organization in collaboration with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration.
“India and the US should collaborate on such research programs. NASA is looking forward to invite students from across the globe to participate in their space outreach programs,” IANS quoted Rosen, Project Scientist, NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
The former Ryan International School Rohini students were felicitated at SPACE’s annual meet in New Delhi. Students from across the country were able to discover nearly 500 new rocks in space and these remained preliminary discoveries as they appeared to be asteroids but did not get confirmed because they tend to move away from their orbits. But when Singh and Wadhwa discovered asteroids remain in their orbits, it is named as a provisional discovery.
“What started as an excuse for night-out with friends became a passion. It is this passion that helped me succeed,” Singh said.
“Out of the 37 asteroids discovered (provisional discovery) worldwide in 2016, 27 have been by Indian students,” Sachin Bahmba, Chirman and Managing Director – SPACE Group told to IANS.
“We look forward to fruitful Indo-US ties, which can come up with new technological advancements through researches done by amateurs and the scientific community of both the countries,” he added.
SPACE has managed to touch base with more than one lakh families and have educated more than 20,000 students annually.