SPACE celebrated A Felicitation for All India Asteroid Search Campaign at American Center, Delhi

SPACE celebrated A Felicitation for All India Asteroid Search Campaign

at American Center, Delhi

on August 27th, 2010

SPACE concluded the program 'All India Asteroid Search Campaign' (AIASC), a prestigious program run in collaboration with 'International Astronomical Search Collaboration' (IASC) with a special feliciation event.

IASC, run by Dr Patrick Miller, Professor, Hardins Simmons University, Texas, is an educational outreach program which is a collaboration between . Using images taken the night before with the 24" and 32" telescopes at the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) Observatory, students make original discoveries of Main Belt asteroids and important observations that contribute to the NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA).

The program run by SPACE in India involved 42 schools and groups. These groups were all coordinated by SPACE. A record 4 asteroids were discovered as part of this campaign! 2 asteroids were discovered by school children from Ryan International School, Rohini, the first time such a discovery was made by school children in India! To felicitate the discoverers and all the participants, SPACE held a function at American Center, Delhi on August 27th from 10:30am - 12:00pm. Ms. Indu Wadhwa and Director Anne Sheshadri kindly allowed us usage of the auditorium at American Center for this purpose.

About 75 people including teachers and students from various schools attended the event. Madam Grace Pinto, Director, Ryan Board, Ryan Pinto and Ms. Seema Wadhwa, Principal, Ryan International School, Rohini were also present. Director Anne Sheshadri started the morning with a welcome to the American Center. Mr. Anuj SInha, Honorary Director, Vigyan Prasar presided as chief guest and gave a speech encouraging hands on science and the love of basic sciences. Mr. Sachin Bahmba, CMD, SPACE talked about SPACE, how it brings such opportunities to be at the forefront of hands-on science to students and fosters the training and curiosity needed to achive such discoveries! Mr. C.B. Devgun, President SPACE showed a presentation about the International Asteroid Search Campaign Project. Prof. Patrick Miller, Director of the program joined the whole auditorium in a Skype session and talked about how pleased he was with such a strong Indian contribution to the program this time. The connections to the Skype session went very smoothly, thanks to the technical support at American Center.

SPACE presented trophies and momentoes to the discoverers Amanjot Singh and Sahil Wadhwa from Ryan, Rohini, and V. Narang and team from SPACE and participation certificates to all schools. Media were also present at this occasion and they interacted with the discoverers and with SPACE officers. This was followed by a high tea where all the attendees could partake of tea and snacks.