Toor chose the name of a princess from ancient Mesopotamia.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Mere hours before NASA’s Messenger space probe was expected to crash into the surface of Mercury, abruptly ending its four-year tenure of observation, winners of a contest to name five new craters on the planet’s surface were announced, including one suggested by an Indian citizen.
According to Space.com, the five winning crater names are: Carolan, Enheduanna, Karsh, Kulthum and Rivera. The names were selected by the public outreach team for the spacecraft out of thousands of submissions to an open competition that closed in January.
The contest stipulated craters must be named after an artist, composer or writer who was famous for more than 50 years and died at least three years ago.
The selections were made after 3,600 initial submissions and a semifinal shortlist of 17 names. The contest was open to anyone from around the world.
Per Space.com, the people who the craters were named after are:
- Enheduanna, a princess of the Sumerian city of Ur in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq and Kuwait), is the first known poet and author. The name was suggested by Gagan Toor (India).
- Turlough O’Carolan was an Irish composer in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The name was suggested by Fergal Donnelly (Belguim), Joseph Brusseau (United States) and Deane Morrison (United States).
- Yousuf Karsh, an Armenian-Canadian, was a famous portrait photographer in the 20th century. Elizabeth Freeman Rosenzweig (United States).
- Umm Kulthum, an Egyptian singer, songwriter and film actress, who was known for her work between the 1920s and the 1970s. The name was suggested by Molouk Ba-Isa (Saudi Arabia), Riana Rakotoarimanana (Switzerland), Yehya Hassouna (United States), David Suttles (United States), Thorayya Said Giovannelli (United States) and Matt Giovannelli (United States).
- Diego Rivera, a Mexican painter and muralist, who was active between the 1920s and 1950s. The name was suggested by Ricardo Martinez (Mexico), Rebecca Hare (United States), Arturo Gutierrez (Mexico) and José Martinez (United States).