Celesta runs online workshops, guest sessions and student competitions. New opportunities are shared in the Discord community.
Hackathon
A free online machine learning hackathon on real NASA exoplanet data, open to high school students across India.
Students worked solo or in teams of up to three to build machine learning models on NASA's KOI Cumulative Table, a catalog of Kepler exoplanet candidates. Featherless.ai sponsored the challenge.
Project
A specialized AI assistant and astronomy mentor, built to make space science engaging and accessible worldwide.
CelestaGPT is built by Celesta, a student-led astronomy community. It adapts to learners at every level, from absolute beginners to astrophysics students and amateur astronomers planning a night of observing, drawing on curated guidance and educational resources.
It covers theoretical astrophysics, cosmology, space exploration and astrophotography, from orbital dynamics to camera settings for deep-sky imaging. It also breaks down mathematical derivations and scientific programming.
For Olympiad students, it offers practice questions, mock exams and problem-solving strategies for the NSEA, INAO and IOAA. For stargazers, it helps plan observation sessions with star hopping, celestial coordinates and seasonal visibility.
Preprint Publication
A deterministic N-body simulation study investigating the sensitivity of a Voyager-inspired ballistic Jupiter flyby to initial conditions and integration methods.
Preprint publication of our research work: Sensitivity of a Ballistic Jupiter Gravity Assist to Initial Conditions and Integration Method (Published October 30, 2026 | Version v1 | Open Access).
Gravity-assist trajectories are sensitive to flyby geometry and to the numerical methods used to simulate them, but the two effects are rarely separated. We used the Gravitational Slingshot Mechanics Laboratory (GSML), a deterministic N-body simulation code, to study a Voyager-inspired ballistic Jupiter flyby.
Starting from a baseline case (420 km parking-orbit altitude, 280 km Jupiter periapsis altitude), we evaluated trajectory sensitivity across physical parameters and numerical integrators. With an adaptive Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg (RK45) integrator, only periapsis altitude changed the heliocentric velocity gain (±5 km moved gain by +0.04 and −0.05 km/s). However, replacing RK45 with a first-order Euler integrator made the solution invalid, proving why physical sensitivity must be separated from numerical error when validating trajectory software.
Celesta Workshop, Day 2
Abhay, an astrophotographer, took a telescope apart live to show what each part does.
Most people never see how a telescope works on the inside. Abhay, an acclaimed astrophotographer and Master Observer at the International Astronomy League, explained its anatomy by disassembling one from his collection and showing the audience what makes it such a powerful tool.
The session closed with a discussion led by Anirudh, Celesta's secretary, about the live launch of ISRO's CMS-03 that day.
Celesta Workshop, Day 1
Celesta's very first workshop, led by IOAA medalist Sumant Gupta, with a guided tour of Stellarium.
Day 1 of Celesta's first workshop was led by Sumant Gupta, an IOAA Gold (Jr.) and Silver medalist. He shared his knowledge of the universe and took the audience on a tour of Stellarium.
Brief talks by Samritha and Abhay followed. Thank you to everyone who joined and made it a fun experience.
Coming soon
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Stay tuned