Noida: Daksh, a 14-year-old student of Shiv Nadar School has created a history. Daksh has made his name famous from Earth to the sky by lifting the curtain on one of these mysteries of space. Daksh, a 9th class student has discovered a new asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in space. Due to this, the world’s top space agency NASA has permitted him to name the asteroid.
According to media reports, Daksh Malik, a 14-year-old student of Shiv Nadar School in Noida, has been recognized by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a provisional asteroid discovery. As is usually the case, this asteroid is currently named 2023 OG40 based on the year of its discovery, but very soon Daksh Malik is going to get the honour of choosing a permanent name for it.
I have interest in space since childhood. I used to watch all the documentaries made about planets and solar systems on National Geographic. It is like a dream come true
Daksh Malik, Student, Shiv Nadar School, Nodia
Daksh Malik and some of his school friends have been looking for asteroids in space for the last one and a half years as part of the International Asteroid Discovery Project (IADP). He got this opportunity when the school’s astronomy club sent an email about the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) in 2022.
IASC is a citizen science program affiliated with NASA, which invites people and students around the world to help NASA discover new asteroids using their datasets and software. IADP, run by the STEM and Space Organization and IASC, attracts more than 6000 participants from around the world every year and succeeds in discovering a few new asteroids every year. According to the IASC website, before Daksh, 5 other students from India succeeded in discovering named asteroids.