Kalinga Times Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Dec 14: A six-month long exercise to look for 20 best young astronomers in Odisha, under the Young Astronomers Talent Search programme organised by Tata Steel in association with Pathani Samanta Planetarium ended here on Saturday.

The young astronomers, selected from among students of different schools in the state, were awarded at a grand function on the eve of the 174th anniversary of Mahamahopadhyay Chandrasekhar Singhsamanta Harichandan Mahapatra, popularly known as Pathani Samanta.

YATS (Young Astronomers Talent Search) was organised to commemorate the birth anniversary of Pathani Samanta. This year, YATS witnessed a huge participation across the state. Students from the areas like Nabarangpur and Malkangiri also showed their interest.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik graced the occasion as the chief guest and distributed the prizes among the young astronomy talents.

Speaking on the occasion, Patnaik appreciated Tata Steel's endeavor in enhancing the scientific sprit of Orissa. Events like YATS would prove beneficial for all round growth of students, he said.

H M Nerurkar, Chief Operating Officer of Tata Steel opined that a country's strength comes from its intellectual capabilities. Therefore, Tata Steel from its very inception believes in empowerment through knowledge sharing, he said.

The YATS competition was open for students of Standard–VIII to Standard–X in all schools of the state. It was conducted in three stages at seven different zones.

In the first stage, the participating students were required to prepare a synopsis on astronomy or space science. The students submitted their papers on ‘Chandrayan' out of which five hundred students were selected to the second stage, which was held separately in the six zones. Finally 100 students qualified to the last and final stage and were called to the Pathani Samanta Planetarium for taking part in a two-day science exhibition on the topic "Chandrayan – India's first ever mission to Moon".