Children of Táchira collaborate with the discovery of asteroids

The Astronomical Union of Venezuela (IAU) and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), in collaboration with NASA, have been searching for new asteroids since March 29, in a program in which 89,000 people from all over the world will participate. and of them, 17 Venezuelan children and adolescents, students of the Maria Montessori Institute, in San Cristóbal, Táchira state.

The scientific community carries out its XXIX Asteroid search campaign. According to the IAU, the objective of this is the discovery of new asteroids, the improvement and updating of astrometric information of existing asteroids. This will allow to have more precise data and that the different organizations can access them until the new search is developed.

The 17 students of the Maria Montessori Institute will work in coordination with the Hardin-Simmons University of Texas, in the United States. His job will be to analyze images of outer space obtained by the Pan-Starrs telescope, located in Hawaii, in order to categorize and date the findings.

They are students from 5th grade to 4th year of high school who participate in the search for asteroids. For three weeks they received the necessary training from the professionals to guarantee their contribution to this campaign.

“In this way, the Maria Montessori Institute reaffirms its leadership in education based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Education STEM, for its acronym in English) and promotes in children and young people the development of new experiences”, they specified from a Institute press release.

In 2017, students from the same school carried out, for the first time in the history of Venezuela, communication via radio of the young people in the institution with the International Space Station.

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