8 Silchar 'citizen scientists' detect 18 asteroids

A CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: In a rare feat, eight 'citizen scientists' of Silchar detected 18 asteroids as part of the Asteroid Search Campaign organized worldwide by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC).

Eight members of 'Astrogen', a Silchar-based citizen science group led by Dr Himadri Sekhar Das, an Associated Professor of Assam University, recently participated in the worldwide campaign that started on March 29 and ended on September 16.

Other members of the group are Gulafsa Begum Chowdhury, Tanushree Bhattacharjee, Sanchali Nath Majumdar, Saikat Majumdar, Akashdeep Mahanta, Shobhan Acharya and Oishee Jyoti. Interestingly, Oishee is a student of Class VI.

Dr Das said, "IASC is a citizen science programme that provides high-quality astronomical data. NASA and Pan-STARRS (Institute for Astronomy University of Hawai) are the partners of this search campaign."

Das said that Astrigen was formed on March 28 this year to popularize Astronomy among common people. The objects detected by the citizen scientists fall into the Preliminary Detection Category and subsequently, the Minor Planet Centre will verify the detected objects. The process usually takes 3 to 5 years to get the confirmatory seal, and after that, the objects will find places in the Provisional Detections category. Till now, 10,190 objects were classified as Preliminary and 51 as Provisional detections.

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