Young astronomer has names in the stars

A young Irish astronomer is managing to keep his feet on the ground after learning he is to have an asteroid named after him.

The honour is being bestowed on Cork Leaving Certificate student Cormac Larkin, who picked up the top astronomy prize at last week’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles.

He has developed a new method to discover rare OB stars, the biggest and brightest types of star, in a galaxy over 50,000 light years from Earth. Their very bright ultraviolet light is blocked by our atmosphere, but his research combines observational and computational aspects of astronomy with data science to find new ones.