Lyna Mohamad
Thirteen Bruneian teams joined the global hunt for asteroids in a NASA affiliated citizen science project held from February 28 to March 24.
The local teams from Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB), Kolej International Graduate Studies (KIGS) and citizen science groups joined 46 participants from six groups of higher educational institutions.
Representing UTB were UTB Galileo, UTB Ptolemy, UTB Kepler and UTB Brahe. KIGS was represented by KIGS Astronomers 1 and KIGS Astronomers 2.
The seven citizen science groups were Kaus, Semaun, Serbang, Gandi, Gagatar, Panding and Astronomical Society of Brunei Darussalam (PABD).
Five students and a lecturer from KIGS participated in the All Brunei Darussalam Asteroid campaign, along with other 40 participants from four groups of higher education institutions.
Chairperson of KIGS’ Astronomy Club Nur Azyan Atiqah binti Mohamad said, “It was a great opportunity being able to join this campaign. I learned a lot of new things through this campaign, including how to spot unknown objects and acquiring scientific skills using the Astrometrica.”
The business accounting major also shared her most enjoyable time was the experience of becoming an amateur astronomer and making her very own preliminary discovery of potential asteroids during the event.
PABD member and KIGS Astronomy Club advisor Sonny anak Jumpo hoped the students gained valuable knowledge in the study of astronomy during the campaign. He added that the event was also to scout more talents among youth at the higher education level into the astronomy area.
As one of KIGS extra-curricular activities first established last year, the Astronomy Club will continue to be involved in more campaigns organised by PABD, Sonny said.
The campaign is a partnership under the memorandum of understanding with the Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) and is a collaboration of the International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC) supported by the National Outreach Coordinator, Office for Astronomical Outreach, International Astronomical Union.
The NASA affiliated citizen science programme encourages Bruneian students and community to make original astronomical discoveries and participate in the hands-on of asteroid hunting.
It was conducted on an online platform to identify near-earth asteroids (NEOs) using Astrometrica software by analysing the real data obtained by the Pan-STARRS telescopes.
