13 January 2022
Student, youth at USP’s Ribeirao Preto School of Medicine (FMRP) Verena PacolaThe 22-year-old has already helped the US space agency NASA discover 25 asteroids, one of which is likely to hit Earth.
Classified as a “Vulnerable Asteroid”, one of our Kate DiBiaski’s main findings – from character Jennifer Lawrence In the film ‘Don’t Look Up’ (Netflix) Joe discovers an asteroid on its way to our world – part of a group of objects that could collide with Earth, although this is unlikely.
Verena explains that “space is too vast for Earth’s size”. “So, the chances of hitting the Earth and producing some impact are very small”, reassuring the young woman in an interview with CNN Brasil.
NASA is still studying the orbit of that asteroid to identify the size of the object and if it is indeed likely to collide with our planet.
Before arriving at this discovery, Verena Paccola trained with NASA scientists. After the trial period, the young woman began receiving packets of images captured by a telescope in Hawaii.
“I analyzed this image package. Those four pictures are flashed for me in sequence. They are taken with a difference of seconds between each. So I will see if anything is going on,” she explained to the network.
When she noticed the presence of a moving object in the images, Verena would do a numerical analysis to identify whether there was an asteroid pattern — a condition that occurs in the controversial Netflix film.
After gathering the information, the young woman’s report was sent to Harvard University to confirm the finding.
For his outstanding performance, Veerena received a medal, certificate and a trophy from the Minister Marcos Pontes In the National Science and Technology Week held in Brasilia. Now, she’s preparing for face-to-face training at NASA. “Let’s see if it gets off the ground for this year,” he says.
Verena now intends to continue its asteroid hunt and is looking for interested candidates for the same role. “I am recruiting people on my Instagram to do a mass training of people who are interested and team up to hunt asteroids together this year”, he invites.
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