Odisha CM flags off exposure visit of budding astronomers to ISRO

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik flagged off the exposure visit of the top 20 winners of Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) to ISRO on Thursday.

The budding astronomers who were selected across Odisha will be visiting the Space Application Centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at Ahmedabad.

Besides visiting the facility, the students will also get one of those rare opportunities to interact with some of the top-notch space scientists of the country over there.

Patnaik congratulated the student winners for their interest in the unique programme and extended his best wishes for their ISRO visit.

The 12th edition of YATS, organized by Tata Steel, was also launched by the Chief Minister on this occasion. With the overwhelming participation of students in 2017, the next edition was launched with much zeal and enthusiasm to make YATS much more enriching for the participating students.

“YATS is a unique programme which offers bright young minds of Odisha a platform to fuel their passion in space science. The 2017 edition of YATS saw the participation of 32,800 students in 300 schools across all 30 districts of the state. Continuing our association with the Planetarium, in its 12th edition in 2018, we intend to make YATS much more enriching for the participating students. We are thankful to the Government of Odisha and Pathani Samanta Planetarium for extending all support in making this venture a successful one, year-on-year,” Rajeev Singhal, Managing Director of Bhushan Steel, a Tata Steel Group Company.

YATS, organized by Tata Steel in association with Pathani Samanta Planetarium, has come to be regarded as a very popular initiative for the school students of Odisha.

It started in 2007 with an aim to identify and encourage the talents of school children in the field of astronomy and space science and to popularize the great contributions of the legendary astronomer of the state, Pathani Samanta.