You know Chaman, the city famed for its bustling border and ripe dry fruit? Well, what if we told you there’s another Chaman, a desolate, wind-swept spot millions of miles away on Mars where the only ‘residents’ are rovers and the only ‘border’ is the edge of a crater?
But as Pakistanis, we do have a cosmic connection between the dust-swept landscapes of Pakistan and the rust-colored terrain of Mars.
If you can imagine standing on the rocky, alien surface and pointing towards a horizon named for a familiar Pakistani town, you’ve grasped the scale of this extraordinary tribute.
Several locations on Mars have been named after cities and geographical areas in Pakistan as part of an international effort to name smaller Martian craters after small towns on Earth.
Reports indicate there are approximately more than eight such spots.
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) names planetary features to help scientists keep track of locations for research.
Craters smaller than 60 km (37 mi) in diameter are generally named after towns on Earth with a population of less than 100,000 people.
Some of the Pakistani locations and city names reportedly used on Mars include.
- Chaman (a crater in Balochistan province)
- Gwash (from Khuzdar District in Balochistan)
- Hala (a crater in Sindh province)
- Indus Vallis (a large valley feature named after the Indus River)
- Jampur (from Rajanpur District in Punjab)
- Khanpur (from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province)
- Mastung (from Balochistan province)
- Sharda (an area in the Neelum Valley, Kashmir region)
- kharli (from Kharan District in Balochistan)
These names help the global scientific community easily identify and discuss specific geological features during missions and research.
