Andart

Mohammed in the Main Belt

Apropos the Mohammed-teddy controversy, I noted that there are three asteroid partially named Mohammed: (13380) Yamamohammed, (15452) Ibramohammed and (20450) Marymohammed. They have all been named for finalists in middle- or highschool science talent searches. I am pretty certain there are many more objects like this in the world ready to annoy people who like to be annoyed.

I must say that naming asteroids after pupils doing good science projects is a great idea. I think this kind of reward should be more common in science: let's reward interested students and amateurs doing important if tedious gruntwork by putting their names on something. There are lots of minor craters and Kuiper-belt objects out there!