UP student ‘discovers’ new asteroid
What makes Mahomo’s discovery even more special is that she is not even an astronomy student – she’s studying Business Management.
A third-year University of Pretoria (UP) student is elated after being credited with a provisional asteroid detection that has been catalogued in the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) Minor Planet Centre (MPC) database.
Rorisang Mahomo (20) said receiving confirmation that her discovery – provisionally named ‘Main Belt Asteroid 2023 QY50’ – had been noted in the MPC database has her feeling truly happy and in shock.
The MPC operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Massachusetts, USA, and derives its operating budget from a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grant.
It typically catalogues around 2 000 provisional asteroid detections a month from thousands of citizen-scientists on asteroid search programmes at universities and other organisations around the world.
Mahomo’s discovery was made possible by Blue Crane Space (BCS) participation in the International Astronomical Search Collaboration’s (IASC) Asteroid Search, an initiative of NASA’s Planetary Defense programme.
BCS is a student-led group within UP that focuses on engineering (aerospace), pure mathematics, astronomy and astro/physics, chemistry and theoretical physics.
The asteroid search campaign she participated in took place from August to September 2023.
The IASC provides software and high-resolution astronomical images from professional observatories to citizen scientists around the world, who use the software to analyse the images in search of objects that could be asteroids.
“I downloaded the datasets on September 2, 2023, and immediately started searching using the Astrometrica programme,” Mohomo said.
She said she identified a movement that matched the description provided by the IASC and that was the first thing that gave her a bit of certainty that it might be one, even before going deeper into the technical process.
“I submitted my report [to the IASC via the Minor Planet Centre] that same night. A week after the conclusion of the August/September 2023 campaign, the IASC sent a file listing all the preliminary discoveries of that search campaign and my discovery was on the list.”
She said just over a year later, on October 29, she received a confirmatory certificate from the IASC, including the provisional name for her asteroid: 2023 QY50.
“I had just finished working on one of my assignments and was ready to go to bed when I received the news. The excitement was immeasurable. The first thing I did was to thank God for such an honour and quickly called my family to join in the excitement.”
Mahomo said knowing that she discovered a celestial body was a different kind of good news.
“It feels unreal. It started becoming real when my phone started buzzing non-stop with Lesotho media reaching out to me.”
What makes Mahomo’s discovery even more special is that she is not an astronomy student or even a student in UP’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS). She’s studying Business Management at the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS).
“My interest in astronomy started when I took a school trip to a planetarium in Bloemfontein,” she said.
Mahomo added that seeing planets, stars, galaxies and the solar system really intrigued her, and her passion for astronomy started then.
“In 2023, during Campaign Week on campus, I saw a gazebo with a telescope and space art, and I knew that’s where I had to be. Their posters had words like physics, chemistry, astronomy and mathematics, and I thought only people in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] were eligible to join. However, when I asked if someone like me from EMS could join, they warmly said yes and that we would learn while in the society.”
Keketso Qhomane, Chairperson of BCS, said Mahomo’s success was enabled and encouraged by UP’s strong focus on trans-disciplinary research and collaboration.
“The BCS aims to foster innovative ideas among university students, and is also a platform for non-BSc students to gain more experience in astronomy and broader science topics in proportion to their relative fields, whether in marketing, finance, multimedia or any other subject matter.”
Qhomane said Mahomo will, as the person who discovered it, be allowed to rename 2023 QY50 – a bit further
down the line.
“Rorisang’s discovery has been named a provisional asteroid detection, which means the MPC recognises it as a potential asteroid discovery but requires additional observations,” he explained.
He said over the next three to five years further observations will be performed to determine the asteroid’s orbit and trajectory and gather more data on it. After those follow-up observations, a final confirmation stage happens.
“The discovery is then officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union, and then it is named by the discoverer.”
Mahomo said she is thinking of giving the discovery her name.
“Scientists usually name their discoveries and theories after themselves, so I think it would be iconic for me to name my first discovery after myself to honour one of my biggest achievements.”
Professor Chris Theron of the Physics Department in UP’s NAS Faculty applauded Mahomo, Qhomane and the BCS for encouraging collaborative research across schools and disciplines.
“It is heartening to receive the news of Keketso, BCS and Rorisang’s achievements. Their collaboration and success will hopefully inspire students across the country to take part in exciting initiatives like asteroid search programmes. Every contribution of time and effort can lead to discoveries that expand the boundaries of our collective knowledge.”
University of Pretoria’s Rorisang Mahomo, has identified an asteroid
The International Astronomical Search Collaboration has officially confirmed the discovery as a verified asteroid. It has been cataloged in the Minor Planet Center database at Harvard, and Asteroid 2023 QY50… pic.twitter.com/E0rjL4eBeM
— Kasi Economy (@KasiEconomy) October 30, 2024
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