Mariana Milena Prado de Sá, 19, has always been passionate about science. Inspired by her mother, Walkíria Prado, a science teacher and graduate in biology, she has always loved the area. Mariana says that science has always been something natural in her home and that, because of her mother’s profession, she always had access to microscopes, which helped in the development of her passion for the solar system and astronomy.
THE CNN the student says that, while studying to enter college, she published content about her astronomy and science summaries on a profile she created on Instagram named @milenastudies.
The purpose of the page is also to help more women to enter the world of science. “It is very difficult, in engineering there are very few women, in my class there is only me and one other. There is a lack of programs that have this function of engaging women in the area of exact sciences.” Today, she has already graduated from college and is studying mechatronics engineering at the Federal University of Uberlândia.
At the age of 18, in February of this year, Mariana joined the Asteroid Hunt program, a NASA initiative with the International Union for Astronomical Research. She says that as soon as they enroll in the program, students receive a package of images from a telescope in Hawaii to observe and analyze. They need to stay alert and pay close attention until they locate a “little dot”, which has a straight line and moves 4 times, an asteroid.
During her analysis, Marina managed, in the first package of images, to find a ‘possible asteroid’. “I sent it on Monday and on Friday they already gave the return that it was an asteroid that had never been detected”, she says.
After her discovery, Marina received a NASA certificate for participating in the campaign, as well as a medal from the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Today, the asteroid is already listed as “discovered”. For now it is called a ‘provisional asteroid’, until after a long process of studying more details of its orbit, it can actually be named.
Source: CNN Brasil
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