profeminist:Nobel Prize? Check. Celestial body named after you? CHECK.Introducing The Malala Asteroi

profeminist:Nobel Prize? Check. Celestial body named after you? CHECK.Introducing The Malala Asteroid!By Dr. Amy Mainzer, astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, USA. “It is my great pleasure to let you know that I have named Asteroid 316201 after Malala.As the discoverer of this asteroid, I have the right to name it according to the International Astronomical Union’s rules; the IAU is the sole worldwide organization recognized by astronomers everywhere to designate names for astronomical bodies. It is an asteroid in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter; it orbits the Sun every 5.5 years. It is a great honor 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). View the asteroid’s page on NASA’s website here.The formal designation of the asteroid is 316201 Malala, or 2010 ML48. The asteroid is the red dot in the upper right of the image. This is an infrared image of the asteroid, which means we are sensing the heat it emits rather than the sunlight it reflects off its surface. This particular asteroid was discovered by our team using a space telescope that orbits the Earth; it is called NEOWISE. I am the principal investigator of the mission. I’ve been an astronomer at JPL for about 10 years now, and it was my life’s dream to be a scientist.My advice to young girls is that science and engineering are for everyone! 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. Plus, it is a wonderful feeling to learn about the world around you – it’s a job you will fall in love with each day.Carrie and I read about Malala’s amazing story and thought that if anyone deserves to have an asteroid named after them, she does!Thank you very much for your work at the Malala Fund – it is inspiring to see all the great things that you all have done.”Read the full piece on The Malala Fund websiteReblogging in honor of Malala Yousafzai’s 18th Birthday!More Malala Yousafzai posts on Profeminist -- source link

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