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An eight-year-old girl joined a NASA-affiliated program to search for asteroids and has already spotted 18 space rocks, according to her family.
Nicole Oliveira, from Fortaleza, Brazil, has been interested in space since she was very young and would throw up her arms to reach for the stars while learning to walk.
At eight, she was dubbed “the world’s youngest astronomer” thanks to her work with NASA, which also involves attending seminars and meeting leading scientists.
The project she is involved in is known as “Asteroid Hunters” and is designed to introduce young people to science by helping them make their own discoveries.
8-year-old Brazilian astronomer Nicole Oliveira poses for a photo with her telescope in Fortaleza, Brazil, September 21, 2021
Nicole Oliveira has been interested in space since she was little and threw her arms up to reach for the stars while learning to walk in her native Brazil.
Her room is filled with solar system posters, according to her family, with miniature rockets and Star Wars figures littering her shelves.
She works from a computer with two large screens, where she spends her free time studying images of the night sky taken by telescopes to search for space rocks.
Asteroid Hunters is managed by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen science program affiliated with NASA.
Its involvement is due to the fact that the Brazilian Ministry of Science is one of the partner organizations, working with NASA and others.
Radiant with pride, Nicole told AFP that she had already found 18 asteroids and that she was planning to name them after Brazilian scientists and members of their families, like her mother and father.
It could take several years for her 18 discoveries to be confirmed as a space rock, but if they are, then she would become the youngest person in the world to officially discover an asteroid.
She broke a record set by Italian amateur astronomer Luigi Sannino, who spotted two asteroids in 1998 and 1999 at the age of 18.
“She really has an eye. She immediately spots points in the images that look like asteroids and often advises her classmates when they are not sure they have really found any, ”Heliomarzio Rodrigues Moreira, the professor of astronomy, told AFP from Oliveira.
She attends a private school in the city of Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil, on a university scholarship.
“The most important thing is that she shares her knowledge with other children. It contributes to the dissemination of science, ”added Rodrigues Moreira.
The family moved to Fortaleza from their hometown of Maceio, a 600 mile move, so they could take advantage of the scholarship.
“We understood that this passion for astronomy was serious when she asked us for a telescope as a birthday present when she was four years old. I didn’t even really know what a telescope was, ”her mother, Zilma Janaca, told AFP.
At eight, she was dubbed “the world’s youngest astronomer” thanks to her work with NASA, which also involves attending seminars and meeting scientific figures.
The project she is involved in is known as “Asteroid Hunters” and is designed to introduce young people to science by helping them make their own discoveries.
She didn’t get the telescope until she was seven, after all of her friends pooled their money to buy the device for her.
The youngster interviewed astronomers, met the Brazilian Minister of Science and the only Brazilian to have been in space, Marcos Pontes.
Nicole wants to be an aerospace engineer and build rockets when she grows up, hoping to someday go to Kennedy Space Center in Florida “to see their rockets.”
The International Astronomical Search Collaboration provides high-quality astronomical data to citizen scientists around the world.
These citizen scientists are able to make original astronomical discoveries and participate in practical astronomy.
Radiant with pride, Nicole told AFP that she had already found 18 asteroids and that she planned to name them after Brazilian scientists and members of their families, like her mother and father.
Her bedroom is filled with solar system posters, her family says, with miniature rockets and Star Wars figures littering her shelves
It is a free service that draws on observations from around the world and with the support of a wide range of international organizations.
One of the projects he manages is a series of “asteroid search campaigns” – each campaign is a month-long event in which teams search for asteroids.
Citizen scientists are part of a team, most of them from high schools, colleges and universities. If they spot a space rock, after confirmation, which can take up to five years, they can officially name their discovery.
Names are proposed to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the world body that designates the names of minor planets and asteroids in the solar system.
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