WIND POINT, Wis., Jan. 17 Three Wisconsin high school students are credited with discovering an asteroid while working on a project for their astronomy class.
Connor Leipold, Tim Pastika and Kyle Simpson of The Prairie School near Racine, Wis., were notified this week that the asteroid, temporarily named 2008 AZ28, had been verified by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass.
The high school sophomores will get to choose their own name for the asteroid, school spokeswoman Susan Paprcka told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The amateur astronomers spotted the asteroid through telescopes located in New Mexico that operate remotely and can be controlled over the Internet, the newspaper said.
Copyright 2008 by UPI
