THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For decades, the joke has been that Neil Armstrong was beaten to the moon by a Malayali tea vendor. But when humanity sets foot on Mars, landforms named after places in the state will be waiting for them, notes Sovi Vidyadharan, of The New Indian Express.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has, in a first, approved names of Kerala localities — Valiamala, Thumba, Bekal, Varkala and Periyar — as well as of noted geologist M S Krishnan, to identify various craters on the red planet.
Kerala-based researchers Prof Rajesh V J from the department of earth and space sciences, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, and Asif Iqbal Kakkassery, a former IIST research scholar who is currently the assistant geology professor at Government College in Kasaragod had jointly submitted the proposal.
The research at IIST on an unnamed crater in the Xanthe Terra region of Mars had identified signs of ancient glacial processes and fluvial activity.
Krishnan’s name was proposed for a 3.5-billion-year-old crater located in a region where evidence of ancient glaciation was scientifically established. The team also proposed several Kerala-based names for nearby Martian landforms.
“Although many names were initially rejected due to pronunciation and compliance issues related to IAU naming conventions, persistent documentation and review ultimately resulted in the approval of the names, including Valiamala, the home of IIST,” Rajesh said. IAU guidelines say large, significant Martian craters may be named after late scientists who made significant contributions to planetary science.