Arushi Nath. Grade 8 Student. On 25 November 2022. 06:00 PM Universal Time UTC / 1:00 PM Eastern Time / 10:00 AM Pacific Time, I delivered a webinar, “Asteroid Science […]
Arushi Nath. Grade 8 Student.
On 25 November 2022. 06:00 PM Universal Time UTC / 1:00 PM Eastern Time / 10:00 AM Pacific Time, I delivered a webinar, “Asteroid Science with Remote Telescope,” hosted by iTelescope.net
Citizen science and robotic telescopes have brought astronomy to everyone, from school kids to backyard astronomers and from those staying in rural areas with dark skies to city dwellers living under a light cloud. For the past two years, Arushi Nath, age 13, has been using robotic telescopes, open datasets, python algorithms, and middle school maths to undertake research on near-earth asteroids. Astrometry-related observations helped her identify asteroids, provide information about their celestial location, and predict their future locations. Photometry involved taking images of the asteroid to find its magnitude. Longer observations yield a change in magnitude, which makes it possible to find the rotational period. For binary asteroids, she uses light curves to find the moonlet’s orbital period. As with all her research, she makes her datasets and methodology open source to reach out to other youths and citizen scientists. Her projects have won the Best of the 2022 Canada-Wide Science Fair award (Innovation), Gold Medal, and Excellence in Astronomy Award from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Check out the slides below detailing the Asteroid Science that can be done through Robotic/Remote Telescopes. Complete slides are available at:
The talk included how I applied my knowledge to undertake citizen science for the NASA DART Mission, including finding the rotation period of the Didymos asteroid and attempts to find the orbital period of the binary system.
Hello. Arushi presented a plot of the brightness of Didymos before and after the Dart impact (time 00:31:19) and inspired by her talk, I made a python plot of the photometry submitted by the ATLAS surveys and have been studying the data.
I hope she is doing well in school.
I thank her for the ideas she presented. I have watched the replay several times now.
Wishing you all the best.
2026 Third Place, Student Oral Competition, NASA Exploration Science Forum, USA. 2025 Third Grand Award, International Science and Engineering Fair, USA. NASA Group Achievement Award 2025 (DART mission team). 2024 Youth Can Innovate Award ($7,000) and Silver Medal, Canada-Wide Science Fair. Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes 2024. Eureka Changemakers Fellow 2025. 2023 Second Prize Winner – European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS). Best of the Fair Award, Gold Medal, Top of the Category, Youth Can Innovate, and Excellence in Astronomy Awards at Canada Wide Science Fair 2023 and 2022. RISE 100 Global Winner, Silver Medal, International Science and Engineering Fair 2022, Gold Medal, Canada Wide Science Fair 2021, NASA SpaceApps Global 2020, Gold Medalist – IRIC North American Science Fair 2020, BMT Global Home STEM Challenge 2020. Micro:bit Challenge North America Runners Up 2020. NASA SpaceApps Toronto 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014. Imagining the Skies Award 2019. Jesse Ketchum Astronomy Award 2018. Hon. Mention at 2019 NASA Planetary Defense Conference. Emerald Code Grand Prize 2018. Canadian Space Apps 2017.
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Hello. Arushi presented a plot of the brightness of Didymos before and after the Dart impact (time 00:31:19) and inspired by her talk, I made a python plot of the photometry submitted by the ATLAS surveys and have been studying the data.
I hope she is doing well in school.
I thank her for the ideas she presented. I have watched the replay several times now.
Wishing you all the best.
I will post my plot on Twitter.