Two High School Girls From India Discover Asteroid Near Mars Moving Toward Earth

(Courtesy of Vaidehi Vekariya)

Two Indian schoolgirls have discovered an asteroid that is slowly shifting its orbit and moving toward Earth.

Radhika Lakhani and Vaidehi Vekariya, both studying in 10th grade, were working on a school project when they discovered the asteroid, which they named HLV2514.

(L-R) Radhika Lakhani with her project partner Vaidehi Vekariya. (Courtesy of Vaidehi Vekariya)

The girls, who are from the city of Surat in the western Indian state of Gujarat, were participating in a Space India and NASA project, which allows students to analyze images taken by a telescope positioned at the University of Hawaii.

Aakash Dwivedi, a senior educator and astronomer at Space India, told CNN that students across India were taught how to spot the celestial bodies using software that analyzes images collected by NASA’s PAN Star telescope. Students then further searched for moving objects in the pictures.

(Illustration - Vadim Sadovski/Shutterstock)

The project, Dwivedi explained, was intended to involve and educate students in science and astronomy.

“We started the project in June and we sent back our analysis a few weeks ago to NASA. On July 23, they sent us an email confirming that we had identified a near Earth object,” Vekariya, who is 15 years old, told CNN.

Dwivedi explained that the asteroid is currently close to the orbit of Mars—but in 1 million years, it will change its orbit and move closer to Earth, although it will still be at a distance of more than 10 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

(Illustration - Triff/Shutterstock)

“Asteroids are taken very seriously by NASA. Since this asteroid is changing its orbit it has become news,” said Dwivedi.

Asteroids, also known as minor planets, are small rocky objects that orbit the Sun.

Vekariya said pupils could not celebrate the discovery due to the pandemic, but added: “This was a dream. I want to become an astronaut.” She then continued: “It is such a vast topic. There is no limit to search in space, especially the black hole theory.”

The CNN Wire contributed to this report.