A 7-year-old Brazilian girl, Nicole Oliveira, has been named the world's youngest astronomer as she found seven asteroids. She took part in a program looking for asteroids that was run by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration and this includes NASA.
IASC Asteroid Hunt Citizen Science Program
According to Wionews, Oliveira's initial fascination with space and astronomy started way back. This reportedly began when she was just two years of age and had stuck with her until now at seven.
Oliveira participated in the "Asteroid Hunt" citizen science program. This particular program is run by the official International Astronomical Search Collaboration and this includes NASA themselves.
Who is Nicole Oliveira?
Nicole Oliveira's passion for astronomy reportedly developed by leaps and bounds. This is according to R7, a Brazilian news agency. She reportedly asked her mother for a star when she was only two years of age.
She had to make do with a toy star during that time but it still wasn't until later on that her mother discovered what her kid had actually needed. Oliveira was also just asked to speak at the recent Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation's very first International Seminar on Astronomy and Aeronautics.
In other news, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has offered NASA $2 Billion for the Lunar Lander Mission which was given to SpaceX.
World's Youngest Astronomer
This young astronomer is also accustomed to presenting lectures within her hometown of Maceió at different schools despite her young age. They also invited her shortly after learning that Oliveira is the youngest member of the CEAAL or the Centro de Estudos Astronômico de Alagoas, Alagoas Astronomical Studies Center.
The IASC or the International Astronomical Search Collaboration introduced Nicole Oliveira de Semião along with her parents in a post. She is the daughter of both Zilma Janacá Oliveira de Lima Semião and Jean Carlo Lessa Semião and comes from Fortaleza, Brazil.
IASC Asteroid Search Campaign
They participated in the IASC asteroid search campaign that was sponsored by the Ministry of Science, Technology, & Innovations (Brasilia DF). Nicole was seen holding her own IASC certificate and a model of the asteroid Bennu.
Nicole had reportedly made numerous different preliminary observations of asteroids in her own searches. The post then congratulated Nicole. The post can be seen on the official International Astronomical Search Collaboration Facebook page.
Young Discoveries
An article by Space back in 2011 introduced shared how a 10-year-old amateur astronomer was considered the youngest person to ever have detected a particular stellar explosion called a supernova! Kathryn Aurora Gray of Fredericton, New Brunswick Canada was able to discover a supernova explosion in the galaxy.
The supernova explosion is called the UGC 3378 and was found within the faint constellation of Camelopardalis. The galaxy is said to be approximately 240 million light-years away.
Gray discovered the supernova explosion on January 2, 2021 through images that were taken of the galaxy UGC 3378 on New Year's Eve. Technology has also played a huge role in space discovery as seen in how AI was able to enhance NASA's images of the sun for further scientific studies to be conducted.
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Written by Urian B.
