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View Shahrukh Khan Crater Region Photomap
 New
York USA (2 November 2009 LT) — The International Lunar
Geographic Society has announced that a crater on Luna, Earth’s
Moon, has been renamed to honour the legendary actor and icon
Shah Rukh Khan.
The decision to designate the crater for the famed "King Of
Bollywood" came following an overwhelming deluge of petitions
from his passionate fans in India and around the world. Known as
"King Khan" or simply "SRK" to his legion of devotees, Mr. Khan
has received widespread critical acclaim for his cinematic
performances, which have earned him thirteen Filmfare Awards,
including seven in the Best Actor category.
The crater, which is located in the Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis
(“Sea
of Tranquility”) district, has been given the honorary
designation as the
Crater S.R. Khan on the occasion of
Mr. Khan's 44th birthday on 2 November 2009.
Born in New Delhi, Mr.
Khan attended St. Columba's School there as a youth. He was presented with the
school's Sword of Honour, an annual award given to the student who best
represents the spirit of the school. Mr. Khan was graduated from the Hansraj
College, where he earned his Bachelors degree in Economics with honors.
He
studied toward a Masters Degree in Mass Communications at Jamia Millia Islamia,
but decided instead to pursue a career as an actor, training under the eminent
theatre director Barry John at Theatre Action Group (TAG) in Delhi.
Mr. Khan made his motion
picture debut in 1992's "Deewana," for which he won the Filmfare Best Male Debut
Award. The following year, he received the Filmfare Best Actor Award for his
performance in "Baazigar," as well as the Filmfare Critics Award for Best
Performance for "Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa." In addition to six subsequent Best Actor
awards, he has also won the Filmfare Best Villain Award ("Anjaam," 1994).
On television, Mr. Khan
hosted the 2007 season of "Kaun Banega Crorepati," the Indian version of "Who
Wants To Be A Millionaire," made famous in the Academy Award-winning movie
"Slumdog Millionaire." He is also the head of two production companies, Dreamz
Unlimited and Red Chillies Entertainment, and co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket
franchise of the Indian Premier League. Mr. Khan is a
notable owner of property on the Moon in the
Sea of Tranquility
region.
The crater designated to honor Shah Rukh Khan was previously
known as Arago B, and is located at 3.4° North (latitude) and
20.8° East (longitude) on the so-called Earthside of the Moon.
It measures approximately seven kilometers in diameter.
The S. R. Khan Crater is part of the Arago crater group, named
for François Jean Dominique Arago (1786-1853), a Catalan-French
mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician. It is the
largest of four satellite craters to Arago, and rests in the
Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, directly south from the main Arago
crater. The Apollo 11 lunar landing site lies southeast of the
crater, which is visible from Earth when viewed with a standard
consumer-grade telescope under optimal conditions.
The
official designation of a Lunar crater is a singular honor
bestowed upon only a select few luminaries. Among those
receiving this rare tribute over the past century are Leonardo
da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton, Julius Caesar
and Jules Verne.
The International Lunar Geographic Society, previously known as
the Lunar Republic Society, is the world’s largest and most
prominent group advocating privatized exploration, settlement
and development of Earth’s Moon. The centerpiece of the
Society’s effort is a ten-year, $3.8-billion (USD) program to
return humans to the Moon and establish permanent bases there.
The Society has also developed the most successful
commercially-available lunar photomap software ever released to
the public, the Full Moon Atlas (http://www.fullmoonatlas.com),
which is used by astronomers and in classrooms around the world.
 The Society successfully advocated the removal of a crater named
for an accused Nazi war criminal, Dr. Hans Eppinger, Jr., by the
International Astronomical Union, and is the prime mover behind
the draft proposal to designate a group of Lunar craters as a
memorial to the seven crew members who perished in the 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) tragedy. (See
http://lunargeographic.com/news/columbia_region.shtml)
The Lunar Geographic Society is a registered International
Business Company (IBC #519589) currently authorized to operate
in more than 200 nations around the world, including the United
States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France,
China, Japan and India, as well as all other nations in Europe,
Asia and the Americas.
The Society’s main operations hubs are in Hong Kong and on the
Isle of Man (U.K.). It maintains a satellite office in Manhattan
for business operations in the Americas.
# # #
SHAH RUKH KHAN CRATER INFORMATION:
Eponym: Shahrukh Khan (Arago B)
Location: Southern Mare Tranquillitatis (3.4° N 20.8° E)
Approximate Crater Diameter: ~7.0 kilometers
Crater Depth: ~140 meters
View Crater Region Photomap
(Detail)
Shahrukh Khan Lunar Media Coverage
The URL for this document is
http://lunargeographic.org/srkhan/
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