The children of the new generations are becoming more alert and intelligent, so it is common for them to be interested in topics such as science and astronomy, which help them develop their skills and knowledge, even discovering new things on the planet. Land.
Such as the case of this 11-year-old Mexican girl, who recently received the incredible news that she discovered an asteroid and now has the opportunity to name it after her.
Originally from the state of Morelos, in Mexico, Ashley Martínez Ocampo is the girl who, after her astronomical search effort, found an object in the solar system’s asteroid belt, identified as 2021FD26 and which she now has the opportunity to name.
Graduated from elementary school in the Morelos municipality of Jojutla, Ashley Martínez likes to search for meteorites and has been able to do so since she is a member of the Urania Astronomical Society (SAU), an organization of amateur astronomers based in Morelos who are registered at the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC).
Given the impressive discovery, the Minor Planet Center, which belongs to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, confirmed that Ashley Martínez Ocampo became the first Mexican girl to discover an asteroid, for which she received recognition from the IASC and became the Morelos pride.
It was a time-consuming process to find the asteroid. I had to analyze various images carefully. I couldn’t miss any detail. Sometimes the software crashed and confused me. It is a discovery that makes me feel proud.
– Ashley Martinez Ocampo
Within their activities in the SAU program, with the help of a software In particular, the girl was in charge of analyzing dozens of photographs taken by the Pan-Starrs telescope, located in Hawaii and partially available to students who collaborate with the IASC.
Under the supervision of the SAU, Ashley’s search campaign has been carried out since March 2021. By analyzing around 30 images from different areas of the sky in search of small moving points, the little girl found the asteroid. In addition, she is waiting for confirmation of the discovery of another five asteroids.
Asked if she has already thought about what she plans to name the asteroid, the little girl replied that she has not defined it yet, since it is a very important decision.
That is a very difficult question. I have a few years to think about it. Discovering asteroids is something very important because we never know if one can hit the Earth. I really like doing all this. I think more children should be interested in astronomy.
The process after discovering an asteroid is long, since it takes approximately six to ten years from the moment it is numbered and cataloged by the International Astronomical Union; already numbered it can be named by its discoverer.