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Head in the sky: 8-year-old Brazilian girl dubbed world's youngest astronomer
Today, at just eight years of age, Nicole Oliveira is known as the world's youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program.
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Brazilian 8-year-old astronomer Nicole Oliveira poses for a picture with her telescope in Fortaleza, Brazil, on September 21, 2021. (AFP/Jarbas Oliveira)
When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky.
Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world's youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country's top space and science figures.
In Oliveira's room, filled with posters of the solar system, miniature rockets and Star Wars figures, Nicolinha, as she is affectionately known, works on her computer studying images of the sky on two large screens.
The project, called Asteroid Hunters, is meant to introduce young people to science by giving them a chance to make space discoveries of their own.
It is run by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen science program affiliated with NASA, in partnership with Brazil's ministry of science.
Beaming with pride, Nicolinha told AFP she has already found 18 asteroids.
"I will give them the names of Brazilian scientists, or members of my family, like my mom or my dad," said the lively girl with dark brown hair and a high-pitched voice.
