PremiumDiksha Shinde, a 14-year-old girl in Aurangabad, was selected as a panellist on NASA's Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowships Virtual Panel.
Shinde said she wrote a theory on black holes and which was liked and accepted at NASA.
The International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research accepted her research paper on 'We Live in Black Hole?' in May 2021.
"I won a research competition organised by International Astronomical Search Collaboration. In that, I provisionally discovered the 'Main Belt asteroid'," Shinde told ANI news agency.
Initially, Shinde suffered two major setbacks before her paper got selected by the space agency.
She said she had submitted an essay titled 'Questioning the existence of God' in September 2020. However, it was rejected.
Later she submitted the same research paper in October. NASA rejected her essay again.
But, in her third attempt, NASA accepted her paper.
Shinde was selected as a panellist for the 2021 MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel in June.
"I accepted the offer and will start working soon. My job involves reviewing proposals submitted by researchers and describing a collaborative approach to research with NASA and understanding the connection between proposed research area and academic discipline pursuit of the students," she said.
The young researcher said that she attends the research discussions every alternate day. She is paid for the job of panellist. Her father, Krishna Shinde, is a headmaster in a non-aided school, while her mother Ranjana Shinde takes tuition classes.
She said she would get training at NASA on attaining the age of 18. Shinde will also attend a conference to be held in October 2021 and NASA will bear all her expenses.
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