Nepal quake: Village gets tribute on Mars

Kathmandu, June 20: Nepal Earthquake in 2015 has rattled the world and continues to haunt those who face it. The total number of lives lost was unfathomable, but th emost hit region-Langtang, which is also a trekking site-lost 215 people in an avalanche that was triggered by the earthquake.

A year later, people still remember the incident and pay a deserving tribute to the lost lives. The International Astronomical Union has named the 9.8 km wide crater on Mars as Langtang.

Tjalling de Haas, the man behind the naming, says that his colleague had worked in this village while studying the Himalayan glacier. Dr De Haas, who studies Mar's physical geography at Utrecht University in Netherlands, said, "It was his base camp for a long period, so we said maybe it's a nice tribute to call [the crater] Langtang."

The crater is "scientifically important". De Haas said, "The marks on the top of the crater wall were probably water flows, and below them you can see ridges -- the remains of former glaciers."

Another crater has been named Bunnik, after his hometown Utrecht. In fact, both the names were approved by the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.

OneIndia News