Chandigarh University students honoured with ‘Citizen Scientists’ title by NASA
NASA recognizes Four
Chandigarh University students as promising contributors to Aerospace
Four Chandigarh University
(CU) students of Aerospace Engineering have been honoured with the prestigious
title of Citizen Scientists by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space
Administration) under its renowned citizen science program – the International
Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC). With this accomplishment, CU students
have made a mark as promising contributors to the field of space exploration
and astronomy.
CU students, namely Sonali
Sahni, Anant Shah, Harsh Aditya Minz, and Abhishek Malhan, have been recognized
as citizen scientists for their valuable contributions to observations of
near-Earth objects and Main Belt asteroids by analysing the images from
Pan-STARRS. During the asteroid research campaign, the team of four successfully
detected an object (officially designated as ‘AST0001’) by using the
Astrometrica software. The competition has contributed to better understanding
of software Astrometrica and detailed analysis of Nasa Hubble Telescope images.
Notably, all the four CU students
are pursuing BE Aerospace Engineering (third year) under CUCET Scholarship.
Abhishek Malhan, hailing from Ludhiana in Punjab, has a 50% scholarship,
meanwhile Sonali from Dhanbad, Jharkhand has a 30% scholarship. Moreover, Anant
Shah from Banaras in Uttar Pradesh, and Harsh Aditya from Raipur in
Chhattisgarh enjoy a 15% scholarship on their tuition fee.