14-year-old Noida student discovers asteroid; NASA lets him name it

A 14-year-old boy from Noida has discovered an asteroid via a NASA project and is set to give a permanent name to it.

Daksh Malik, a class 9 student from Shiv Nadar School, participated in a NASA project, during which he discovered the asteroid between Mars and Jupiter's asteroid belt, as per a report by The Print.

Daskh will have the honour of naming the asteroid. As of now, its name is '2023 OG40'.

After submitting his preliminary detection of the asteroid in 2024, Daksh now got the opportunity after NASA confirmed the asteroid as "Provisional Discovery of a Main Belt Asteroid".

Daksh began his discovery with two of his classmates as part of International Asteroid Discovery Project (IADP). The project was carried under the supervision of Dr Patrick Miller from Hardin Simmons University, as reported by the publication.

Organised by STEM and Space and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), this NASA program is a citizen science program which lets participants discover asteroids by using software and datasets.

As per the IASC website, the citizen scientists can make original astronomical discoveries and participate in hands-on astronomy.

Speaking to The Print, Daksh expressed his fascination with space. "I've been fascinated with space since I was little. I used to watch all these documentaries on National Geographic about planets and the solar system. This is like a dream come true," he told the publication.

The IADP has over 6,000 people participating every year, where a few of them are successful at discovering new asteroids.

The participants are provided with datasets from IASC, which they have to download. Calibrating them on Astronomica software, they then have to look for asteroids.

As per the IASC website, Daksh is the 6th Indian student to be able to discover an asteroid.