NASA awarded Polish students

The U.S. Agency for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) awarded Polish students, who, this spring, took part in the international program of objects near the Earth observation.
Young Poles managed to effectively verify orbit of two asteroids considered so far as objects potentially threatening our planet and discover a new asteroid.

Spring campaign of NEO Confirmation Campaign launched on 15th of March this year and lasted one month. The aim of the action was to confirm the location of already discovered Near Earth Objects, or objects close to Earth's orbit. School from, inter alia, Germany, Japan, Morocco, Poland, Portugal and the United States took part in the campaign.

In two similar campaigns carried out by NASA and the Astronomical Research Institute in 2007 (International Asteroid Search Campaign) Polish schools became famous for the discovery of a dozen or so asteroids. This year the task for the students included not only seeking new asteroids, but also and above all, monitoring those that had already been discovered, particularly those that in future could hit the Earth, the so-called "killers".

Thanks to measurements made by students from Poland two asteroids disappeared from the list of "Virtual Impactors" made by the Minor Planet Center, which was recognized as a "great success" by the campaign coordinator Patrick Miller from Astronomical Research Institute - only few other schools around the world could accomplished that.
The successes of Polish schools have been awarded by NASA and ARI with special diplomas and badges that pupils and teachers have received at the end of the school year.