At just two years old, Nicole Oliveira, from Alagoas, could barely speak, but she already knew enough words to make a rather unusual request: “Mommy, I want a star”. The mother, Zilma Jacana, did not understand and presented her with toy stars.
It took her about three years to realize that Nicolinha, as the girl is known by everyone, wanted a real star, one of those that shine in the sky at night and are light-years away from Earth. The planet Saturn also enchants her, but she says she prefers to study asteroids.
“I gave a lecture about the asteroid Bennu and since then I’ve studied and been interested in several other asteroids,” says Nicole, now eight years old. “I like all the stars, but I find asteroids particularly fascinating.”
Not by chance, since last year, Nicolinha has contributed to the Asteroid hunting, a citizen science program by NASA, the US space agency, through which it found seven such stars wandering through space with the help of software.
She also has a canal no YouTube about astronomy, she is the founder of a online course on the subject and the youngest member of CEAAL (Center for Astronomical Studies of Alagoas), an institution that brings together amateur astronomers from all over Brazil.
At the age of 5, Nicole expressed her first interest in taking a course on astronomy and began searching the internet until she found CEAAL. At first, the institution’s president informed that, due to her age, she could not participate — but that did not make her give up.
“She insisted and, when she turned six, she got the opportunity to participate in the course”, says Zilma. She attended all the classes, took the exam, passed and became the institution’s youngest member.”
The feat drew attention and the girl was invited to give lectures at schools in Maceió, her hometown, and at CEAAL itself. With the onset of the pandemic, however, face-to-face activities were suspended and the hectic routine was replaced by long, boring days.
Nicolinha, of course, was upset with the situation, but she didn’t let herself be shaken and “turned the sadness into an opportunity”, in her mother’s words. It was at that moment that the idea arose to create the YouTube channel As Observations of Nicolinha and the online club Nicolinha&Kids, which, after two months of creation, already brings together 45 children.
“I started looking on the internet and saw that there was no YouTube channel geared towards children,” says Nicole. “Both on the channel and at the club, I talk about everything that involves astronomy and bring in professors to participate.”
It all started with a group on WhatsApp together with three other friends who are also interested in astronomy. At a certain point, many children started to join the community and, at Nicolinha’s request, Zilma created an Instagram profile for the club and for the YouTube channel.
Currently, the Instagram profile has 6,000 followers and the channel has over 1,000 subscribers. Nicole’s mother and father are responsible for editing the videos, but it is the daughter who prepares all the material and contacts the experts to invite them to participate.
Big dreams
In the midst of an atypical routine for an eight-year-old child, Nicole still manages to reconcile the various projects and the school, which, according to Zilma, is and will always be the girl’s priority.
Only once, she was excused from class to accomplish a great feat: to lecture at the 1st International Seminar on Astronomy and Aeronautics of the MCTI (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation), held virtually in June this year.
Despite being very young, she recognizes the importance of studies and knows exactly which path to follow when she graduates from high school, many years from now. Interestingly, your big dream is not to be an astronaut.
“Traveling into space must be amazing, but, even so, I prefer to stay down here (laughs),” says Nicolinha. “I want to become an aerospace engineer and build rockets to take astronauts on important space missions.”
*Intern of the R7 under the supervision of Pablo Marques
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