KATHMANDU: The Nepal Asteroid Search Campaign-2017 held from January 19 to February 18 has found six new asteroids.

Five teams were selected for the campaign from Nepal which included four from Kathmandu and one from Pokhara.

The participating teams were provided with the photos taken by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) based in Hawaii, USA along with necessary software and instructions.

The teams found nine asteroids based on the photos and sent it to the US mainland. It will take a few years for the research to be verified.

The students from Celebration Co-Ed School in Kathmandu, teachers and students from Pokhara's Prithvinarayan Campus, and club members from Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) took part in the search campaign.

NASO Chairman Suresh Bhattarai said it was possible to give Nepali names to the new finds after necessary verification process.

The participating teams had analysed 180,000 moving masses of rock in the data provided by Pan-STARRS which currently operates two telescopes of 1.8 meters. RSS