Diksha Shinde, a 14-year-old girl from Aurangabad, has been chosen as a panellist on the Minority Serving Institution (MSI) Fellowships Virtual Panel of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Diksha had presented an essay titled ‘Questioning the existence of God’ in September 2020, but it was rejected. She re-submitted the essay with some changes in October 2020. But, it was again rejected. “I then decided to send a research paper on ‘Black Hole’ which was approved and accepted by NASA. I won a research competition arranged by International Astronomical Search Collaboration. In that, I temporarily discovered the ‘Main Belt asteroid’,” Shinde said to news agency ANI.

Her research paper title “We Live In Black Hole?” was accepted by the International Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research this year. In June, Diksha was picked as a panellist for the 2021 MSI Fellowships Virtual Panel for NASA. “I took the offer and will start working soon. My job includes reviewing suggestions submitted by researchers and reporting a collaborative plan to research with NASA and learning the connection between proposed research field and academic discipline pursuit of the students,” she said.