New Delhi:
A crater, nearly 10-kilometre wide on Mars has been named after one of the villages worst hit by the devastating earthquakes in Nepal last year. The crater has been named after Langtang, also a popular trekking site in Nepal. At least 215 people were killed in Langtang when a massive earth quake-triggered avalanche submerged the village.
The International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature approved the name on June 14. According to the researcher behind this move, Tjalling de Haas, it was a tribute to the Nepali village.
de Haas, who studies Mars's physical geography at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, told the BBC that he chose Langtang because his colleague had worked there while studying Himalayan glaciers.
"It was his base camp for a long period, so we said maybe it's a nice tribute to call (the crater) Langtang," he said. The crater is said to have a diameter of 9.8 kilometres. Along with Langtang, three other craters on the planet were named Bunnik, Nqutu, and Talu respectively. A 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Nepal in April devastating the Himalayan country and left nearly 9,000 people dead.
