An asteroid, currently located between Mars and Jupiter, has been named after 18-year old Mumbaikar Bhushan Mahadik.
The asteroid was christened after him by the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, US. The laboratory named the asteroid after Bhushan in recognition of his achievement as a finalist in the 2003 Intel International Science Engineering Fare held in Ohio in 2003. The focus of his research was 'synthesis of carbon nanotubes'.
Bhushan passed out of Father Agnel Junior College, Navi Mumbai, India, in 2004. Now, he is currently doing his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the University of California in Berkley.
He was selected by ISRO and Nasa to participate in the 'Red Rovers Goes to Mars' programme in 2002. At Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Bhushan was trained to operate the Martian rovers in a simulated environment. Mars Society president Robert Zubrin has allotted Bhushan an acre of land on the Red Planet. (What! I urge everyone to email the mars society to ask him what gives him the right to allocate land on another planet it - may be all a ghastly bit of misreporting)
"It was a moment of highest happiness in our lives that our only child has a place in space permanently. The recognition given by Lincoln Laboratory should encourage youngsters in India to study space sciences and technology." - Prakash Mahadik, his father. The asteroid's dimension varies from 3 km to 8 km. It completes one rotation around the Sun in 3.78 years.
