Salwan Public School students from Gurgaon, Dhruv Gupta and Deshna Jain, have made a breakthrough discovery in the field of Astronomy. The pair discovered two new asteroids which have been named 2016 S21 P10vK9F and 2016 JQ37 P10VlA8. The standard 10 and 11 students made this find while working with the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), which is an Indian organisation working in collaboration with the International Astronomical Search collaboration (IASC) programme for the past six years. The programme aims to popularise astronomy among the Indian youth.

The bodies are all set to be added to NASA’s list of Near Earth Objects (NEO) to legitimise the find. A SPACE representative told Times of India, “These provisional discoveries have been confirmed and formally recognised asteroid discovery, as endorsed by international agencies concerned, having the highest value among all the discoveries/observations credited.”

Part of the SPACE programme is to provide training to students and amateur astrologers for asteroid hunting. After the data is collected it’s analysed using a special software which is how Dhruv and Deshna made their discovery. Both of them are very pleased by their achievement. “It was an amazing experience working on the software. I am really glad that my school provided me with this opportunity. I feel privileged for the opportunity given to me,” says Deshna. Dhruv adds that this experience has convinced him to take up a career in the field.