Chief minister Naveen Patnaik with the winners of Young Astronomers Talent Hunt on the occasion of 175th birth anniversary of Pathani Samanta at Pathani Samanta Planetarium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 14: The six-month long exercise to hunt for 20 best young astronomers in the state, under the Young Astronomers Talent Search (YATS) programme, has come to an end.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik at a grand function held in Pathani Samanta Planetarium here last evening felicitated the top 20 budding astronauts of the state on the 175th anniversary of Mahamahopadhyay Chandrasekhar Singhsamant Harichandan Mahapatra, popularly known as Pathani Samanta. The event was organised by Tata Steel in collaboration with Pathani Samanta Planetarium.

“The works of Pathani Samanta would inspire students of Orissa. This competition provides an opportunity to the students in the rural and remote areas of the state to exhibit their talents and become scientists and astronomers,” said Naveen.

The contest was open for students of Classes VIII-XII at all schools of the state. It was conducted in three stages at seven different zones such as, Belpahar, Keonjhar, Joda, Jajpur, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Jeypore.

In the first stage, the participating students were required to prepare a synopsis on “Space Science- India’s Past, Present and Future”.

Finally, after the zonal rounds, 121 students from across the state including budding tribal talents from the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Sundergarh were selected for the final round.

Announcing the top 20 young astronauts selected through YATS-2010, Hridayeshwar Jha, vice-president (Orissa project), Tata Steel, said: “The selected students would be taken on a visit to ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) for interaction with top scientists of the country. They will also be taken on a visit to other scientific facilities in Bengaluru such as the Indian Institute of Science.”

YATS, held for the fourth time in the state aims to popularise the excellent contributions of the legendary Pathani Samanta in the field of astronomy and to spot and encourage the young talents.