One of the Mars targets being explored by NASA’s rover Curiosity has been named St Kilda because of a very personal connection to Linda Kah, a UT scientist who is working on the mission.
The BBC noted that Curiosity examined an area dubbed St Kilda after the remote Scottish archipelago thanks to a suggestion from Kah. The last islanders left St Kilda’s main island of Hirta in 1930 after life there became unsustainable. Shortly after the island was evacuated, Prof Kah’s great grandfather suggested that his family move to the archipelago. Read the story online.
The Scotsman also featured Kah and her St Kilda connection in this story.