Bhubaneswar June 8 (IANS) Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday flagged off an exposure visit of top 20 winners of the Young Astronomer Talent Search (YATS) edition here.
The budding astronomers selected across Odisha will visit the Space Application Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at Ahmedabad.
Besides they will also get opportunity to interact with some top-notch space scientists of the country.
Patnaik congratulated the winners for their interest in the unique programme and extended his best wishes for their ISRO visit.
The 12th edition of YATS organized by Tata Steel was also launched by the Chief Minister on this occasion.
YATS organised by Tata Steel in association with Pathani Samanta Planetarium has come to be regarded as a very popular initiative for schoolstudents of Odisha.
"YATS is a unique programme which offers bright young minds of Odisha a platform to fuel their passion in space science. The 2017 edition of YATS saw participation of 32 800 students from 300 schools across all 30 districts of the state. Continuing our association with the Planetarium in its 12th edition in 2018 we intend to make YATS much more enriching for the participating students " said Rajeev Singhal Managing Director of Bhushan Steel a Tata Steel group company.
It started in 2007 to identify and encourage talent among schoolchildren in the field of astronomy and space science and to popularise the contributions of legendary astronomer from the state Pathani Samanta.

--IANS cd/tsb