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Meredith students recently discovered what is known as a NEO or “Near Earth Object.”        

Sophomore Calley Jones, of Southport, N.C., and junior Nicole Spidel, of Concord, N.C., discovered the NEO while working with Associate Professor of Physics Bill Schmidt on a research project for the introduction to research class (PHY 299).        

Their discovery has been published online in the Minor Planets Online Circular, which can be viewed at http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/mpec/K08/K08G37.html.       

A previous team of Meredith students discovered an asteroid in 2007.   

NEOs are “much harder to find than asteroids,” Schmidt said. “The newly discovered ones are monitored closely to see if they will collide with earth.”