(Photos: UFSC, Disclosure)
UFSC is accepting applications for the Girls in Science project. The objective is to assemble teams interested in participating in Asteroid Hunt 2024 — a federal government program in partnership with NASA that aims to discover and name asteroids.
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The Blumenau Campus will offer in-person and online training for those who want to explore the sky.
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The activity is exclusive to girls aged 12 and over and women up to 99 years old. To participate, you do not need to be a student or have any connection with UFSC. There is also no need for prior knowledge of the topic, you just need to be interested in the subject.
The search for asteroids is done using a specific program, which needs to be installed on a computer with a Windows operating system and internet access. If the participant does not have one, it will be possible to use computers on the UFSC Blumenau Campus.
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In the 2023 edition, the UFSC Meninas na Ciência project team discovered eight asteroid candidates. Five of them through the watchful eyes of student Ana Lindsey Nogueira Fernandes, who is now studying a degree in Chemistry at UFSC Blumenau.
Registration is online, by filling out a form. There is no limit to places and training should begin in May, on a date to be defined.
Girls in Science: how UFSC scientists discovered 8 asteroids in a NASA project
Ana Lindsey Nogueira Fernandes discovered five asteroids (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
Visit to the UFSC Observatory to observe the sky at night (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
Visit to the UFSC Observatory to observe the sky at night (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
Telescope workshop for project members (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
Training class for the Asteroid Fighter (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
Analysis of the program that searches for asteroids (Photo: UFSC, Disclosure)
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What is “Girls in Science”?
It is an extension project linked to the Physics Department at UFSC. Created in 2020, it aims to stimulate the interest of girls and women in exact sciences and technologies and encourage the search for scientific professions and careers.
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The project is coordinated by professor Gabriela Kaiana Ferreira and has the collaboration of scholarship holders and volunteers. Together they develop a series of activities involving scientific dissemination and combating prejudices and stereotypes about the presence of women in the exact sciences.
One of these actions is the training and organization of teams for the Asteroid Hunting competition, which allows participants to make their own contributions when finding asteroids, while learning about astronomy in practice.
To participate in the competition, the project promotes in-person training and group meetings, in addition to providing support material. In this training, participants learn to identify astronomical objects and prepare and send reports with possible asteroids found.
If NASA confirms that the object found is indeed an asteroid, which could take two to three years, the person who discovered it has the right to name it.
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