Winners of Tata Steel-organised YATS in Bhubaneswar to get a chance to visit ISRO

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday felicitated 20 winners of the 12th edition of Tata Steel’s Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) programme (2018/19) at a function held at Pathani Samanta Planetarium here. The winning group of aspiring astronomers and scientists will also get an opportunity to visit one of the premier facilities of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to get a first-hand experience of space science in action.

Naveen also felicitated founder-cum-director of Mumbai-based RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory citizen science project Dr Anand Hota and senior professor of Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, Tarun Souradeep.

About 63,000 students from 300 schools in the State participated. The theme for the 12th edition was ‘Imagine space exploration, 50 years from now’ and included an open-quiz for students from Classes VI to X as well as an essay competition for Class IX and X students. School and Mass Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra, Director of Pathani Samanta Planetarium Kailash Chandra Sahoo and Tata Steel corporate services VP Chanakya Chaudhary were present.