[meteorite-list] Asteroid Named for Nobel Prize Winner Joins Historic Lineup (316201 Malala)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4554

Asteroid Named for Nobel Prize Winner Joins Historic Lineup
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
April 15, 2016

An asteroid discovered by NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft has been given the 
formal designation 316201 Malala, in honor of Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan, 
who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. The asteroid's previous appellation 
was 2010 ML48.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) renamed the asteroid as the 
request of Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, 
California. Mainzer is the principal investigator of NASA's NEOWISE space 
telescope. The IAU is the sole worldwide organization recognized by astronomers 
everywhere to designate names for astronomical bodies. So far, Mainzer 
and the NEOWISE team have focused on pioneers in civil rights, science 
and the arts for the astronomical honor. Among the strong women of history 
who have already had NEOWISE-discovered asteroids named for them are civil 
rights activist Rosa Parks, conservationist Wangari Maathai, abolitionists 
Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman, and singer Aretha Franklin.

Asteroid Malala is in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter and orbits 
the sun every five-and-a-half years. It is about two-and-a-half miles 
(four kilometers) in diameter, and its surface is very dark, the color 
of printer toner.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the NEOWISE mission for NASA's 
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory 
in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies 
Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and 
data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center 
at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages 
JPL for NASA.

For more information about NEOWISE, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/neowise

Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov 

2015-132