A team of middle school students in Slut spotted a near-Earth asteroid while participating in a space hunting expedition.

SPACE India, the private space education foundation that led the campaign, congratulated a team of 14-year-old students, Vaidehi Vekariya and Radhika Lakhani, for making amazing astronomical discoveries.

The All India Asteroid Search Campaign (AIASC) is organized by SPACE India and the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC), a group of civilian scientists affiliated with NASA.

Vekariya and Lakhani were one of the iterating teams in the first phase of the 2020 campaign. During the first phase of AIASC 2020, the duo discovered an asteroid known as HLV2514. It is currently identified as a near-Earth asteroid near Mars, but it is expected to fly to Earth after millions of years.

DISCOVERY ALERT!
We are proud to announce VAIDEHI VEKARIYA SANJAYBHAI and RADHIKA LAKHANI PRAFULBHAI, two students of P.P. SAVANI CHAITANYA VIDYA SANKUL (CBSE) from Surat with the help of SPACE-AIASC discovered a new Asteroid which is a Near-Earth Object named HLV2514. pic.twitter.com/HXpOvrwxNY

— SPACE India (@Spacian) July 25, 2020

According to The Times of India, IASC Director J. Patrick Miller confirmed the results in an email to Space India and said: From Mars, over time (about 10 ^ 6 years), it will become an asteroid that passes through the Earth. “”

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This discovery was made in June using images captured by the Panorama Survey Telescope and the Fast Response System (Pan-STARRS) at the Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii. It is a near-Earth object telescope operated by the University of Hawaii’s Institute of Astronomy, which uses astronomical cameras, telescopes, and computer equipment to scan the sky and constantly find objects in space.

The asteroid HLV2514 is one of many asteroids discovered with the help of Pan-STARRS. A Space India spokeswoman told Reuters that NASA hasn’t confirmed the route yet, and only then can the object be named. “… I’m very impatient and looking forward to the opportunity to name the asteroid,” Feddy Vicaria, one of the discoverers, said in a statement.