Asteroid: 2020 SH65

The International Astronomical Search Collaboration hosts a citizen science program called International Asteroid Search Campaign, under which they provide high quality astronomical data to citizen scientists around the globe to help the scientists classify the bulky astronomical data. IASC provides the images captured by The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (PAN-STARRS), located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US. We use a software called Astrometrica to observe the different features in the image to see any possible signatures of asteroid or any near-earth objects.

In the campaign of September - October 2020, I, along with my team found this signature of the asteroid, and after a year of verification, the asteroid was finally named 2020 SH65. The image above shows the orbit of the asteroid we discovered. You can learn more about the orbital parameters and other information about the asteroid through this link of Minor Planet Center.Click Here

Along with working as a citizen scientist on this campaign, I also created multiple asteroid search training program for high schoolers. Here are some glimpses of our online training programs.