Recently, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid, discovered in 2006, after Indian classical singer Pandit Jasraj. With this, Pandit Jasraj becomes the first Indian maestro to have a planet named after him. The asteroid, or more formally known as a minor planet, is located between Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered on November 11, 2006, by the Catalina Sky Survey, whose telescopes are based in Arizona in the United States.
However, he is not the only Indian to receive the honour. Apparently, there are other Indian figures, who have minor planets named after them. Here is a list of some of them:
1. Hamsa Padmanabhan: Back in 2010, a minor planet, code number 21575, was named ‘hamsa’ after a Pune-based teenager. Then 16, Hamsa Padmanabhan was a second-year B.Sc student in Fergusson College. The honour was bestowed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln lab for her presentation at the Intel international science and engineering fair (ISEF) in 2006. She is among the six Indian students who have got planets named after them since 2006. The others are Debarghya Sarkar, Anish Mukherjee, Hetal Vaishnav, Vishnu Jayaprakash and Rishin Behl.
2. Sainudeen Pattazhy: In 2008, a minor planet in the solar system, which earlier bore just the number 5718 CD4, was named after Kollam-based scientist, Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy. The minor planet was named ‘5718 Pattazhy’ and was discovered by US-based space scientist Dr R Rajmohan in 1989. Pattazhy has carried out pioneering research on many environment-related issues.
3. Akshat Singhal: In the year 2002, a minor planet was named after 17-year-old boy from Jaipur’s St Anselm’s School. The honoured was bestowed by the MIT’s Lincoln Lab, which named a minor planet between Mars and Jupiter — 12599 Singhal — after him. Akshat was India’s youngest Microsoft-certified systems engineer at 14, has an entry into the Limca Book of Records for it. He is the world’s youngest certified Lotus professional, had started building websites at age 12.
4. Viswanathan Anand: India’s chess champion Viswanathan Anand had a planet named after him in the year 2015. The minor planet between Mars and Jupiter was named ‘4538 Vishyanand'. It was discovered by Kenzo Suzuki of Japan in Toyota Observatory in 1988.
5. Madhav Pathak: In the year 2002, a planet was named after Madhav Pathak, who has changed the conventional Braille slate, making writing easier for the visually impaired. For this, he has 12509 Pathak named after him.
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