Recently a society by the name of “Lunar Geographic Society” claimed that a crater in Mare Tranquillitatis has been named after actor Shah Rukh Khan as ‘S R Khan’.
The Amateur Astronomers Association Delhi (AAAD) contacted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) which is the apex body for making all the decision regarding any matter that concerning places in the outer space. They have confirmed that “Lunar Geographic Society is not an IAU body and is not responsible for lunar nomenclature on IAU's behalf”. Thereby confirming that no crater has been named after the Indian actor
There are only five craters on moon which have been named after Indians namely: Aryabhatta-1, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, Jagdish Chandra Bose, Amil kumar Das, and Sisir Kumar mitra.
The ‘Astrogeology Research Program’ of the IAU is responsible for the nomenclature of objects beyond earth and the entire updated list of names of craters on moon is available on http://tinyurl.com/craterlist and the name of Bollywood Actor Shah Rukh Khan is not included in the list
For any further queries:
Raghu Kalra
+91-9990224091
raghukalra@gmail.com
