An 18-year-old Brazilian discovers a new asteroid being researched by NASA

An 18-year-old girl, a resident of Contagem, Minas Gerais, found a new asteroid in a hypothetical project by NASA. Laysa Peixoto Sena Lage made this discovery in August of this year, during the campaign “asteroid hunting‘, in partnership with the International Astronomical Search Collaboration.

The student, who is in the second year of physics at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), has attended public schools all her life and says she has always been interested in space.

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To find the new asteroid, Laysa observed images recorded by NASA on the computer and performed a preliminary analysis to identify the space object.

“Since the beginning of the year, I have been participating in NASA’s asteroid hunt. I saw the images through the telescope and studied the solar system of the institute in Hawaii. I analyze the image pixel by pixel, I notice some properties and values. Then I sent them a report. After a while, they proved that it was an asteroid, and in time The current one, it will contain my initials. I even got a certificate,” the young woman explained to st 1.

Those who think this was a student’s first experience with astronomy are wrong. Laysa has already won a silver medal during the 2020 edition of the Brazilian Astronomy Olympiad, and even took third place in the international competition for astronomy and astrophysics.

“It is an indescribable experience, it has always been my dream to be able to contribute to physics and science (…) I have always loved the stars and what makes me the happiest is that I have studied my whole life in public school, so no matter where a person studies, He can fulfill dreams and achieve what he wants,” concluded the young woman.

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