Bengal boys take celestial position

Kolkata: They are barely 18 years old, but have already achieved immortality. Anish Mukherjee and Debarghya Sarkar, who passed out of South Point High School this year, now have two minor planets named after them. The celestial honour was bestowed on them by the Massachussettes Institute of Technology and Lincoln Laboratory of the US.

The honour is a recognition of their performance at an international sciencefair. Anish and Debarghya had won the second grand award in the electrical and mechanical category at the 2009 edition of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in Nevada, US. At the fair, the duo had teamed up to showcase a tamper-proof clamped bottle cap that won accolades from the jury comprising Nobel laureates and eminent scientists. The winner of the first and second grand awards at the fair get minor planets named after them.

According to a communication from MIT and Lincoln Laboratory, “minor planet 2000 AH52” (Citation No. 25629) and “minor planet 2000 AT53” (Citation No. 25630) will, henceforth, be known as “Mukherjee” and “Sarkar”, respectively. The planets were discovered on January 4, 2000, by Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research Team at Socorro, under its Linear Program. TNN