Last year Asil Naama, who was then studying for a bachelor's degree in the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, discovered two new asteroids. This is within the framework of NASA's "Asteroid Hunting Campaign".
Asil Naama
She was the only Israeli who approached the challenge, and following the discovery, the two asteroids were named after her. The discovery, according to her, was made possible thanks to various technologies that she studied both in Prof. Dan Adam's laboratory at the faculty, and also independently for several months.
Following that first win, Naama founded with two partners, the sisters Aya Zariki and Jamila Zariki, both of whom have a background in the field of space, the ASTROFINDERS association designed to impart knowledge to male and female students in Israel.
So far, the three have opened four learning groups in the north - in Ein Mahal, in Reina, in Umm El Fahm and in Kfar Kana - and soon more groups are expected to open all over the country. In addition to these groups, which are opened within schools, there will be groups for independent registrants in the new planetarium "V Planet" in Nof HaGalil. In these groups, students acquire scientific knowledge and various skills including image analysis, image processing, space, robotics, computer science and physics.
Together with the Ein Mahal students - the first group established by the association - the three female founders recently discovered 15 new asteroids. Like Naama last year, the Ein Mahal students will also receive official certificates for the discovery of the asteroids. Asil, Aya and Jamila themselves recently discovered four asteroids that will be called, at their request, Kfar Kana, Deir al-Assad, Ein Mahal and AJA - an abbreviation of their first names.
In the past year, Naama finished her bachelor's degree and started a master's degree in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. She is now completing courses after which she will begin research under the guidance of Prof. Alon Wolf from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Dr. Firas Moassi from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. And to space, of course, she does not intend to assume.
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