NASA names asteroid Malala

WASHINGTON: Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai now has an asteroid named after her, according to the Malala Fund.

Dr. Amy Mainzer, astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, USA, named Asteroid 316201 after Malala.

It is an asteroid in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter; it orbits the Sun every 5.5 years.

Dr. Mainzer says, “It is a great honour to be able to name an asteroid after Malala. My postdoctoral fellow Dr. Carrie Nugent brought to my attention the fact that although many asteroids have been named, very few have been named to honor the contributions of women (and particularly women of color).”

Writing on the Malala Fund Blog, Mainzer also said “We desperately need the brainpower of all smart people to solve some of humanity's most difficult problems, and we can't afford to reject half the population's.”