When she was learning to walk, say Nicole Oliveira’s parents, the young lass would reach her arms up to the stars. These days, she’s not unlike most other 8-year-olds: According to Phys.org, her room is filled with toys and posters, but in her case there’s a space connection: Her toys are Star Wars figurines and miniature rockets, and her posters are models of the solar system. Also in her room is her computer, on which she studies images of the sky on two screens.

Nicolinha, as she’s called, has had telescopes since she was 7 years old; her mother, Jacana, says she didn’t even know what a telescope was until her daughter asked her for one.

Through her efforts, and in conjunction with the international objective to get amateur astronomers to share their data with the “official” space community, Nicole has discovered 18 asteroids, according to Republic World. As of July 2022, those discoveries haven’t been certified — that process takes years. Assuming her data is certified before she reaches the age of 18, she’ll be the youngest-ever person to be credited with discovering an asteroid (a record now held by an Italian man who was 18 when he was credited with discovering an asteroid).

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