World News – UK – Names of Scottish Ospreys sent to Mars on the Nasa rover

The names of four birds of prey from a nesting site in the highlands are among those that were “sent to Mars” on Nasa’s Rover Perseverance

Nasa was looking for names that were to be attached to the robot in microscopic writing on three fingernail-sized silicon chips on a plaque

Louis, Aila, Mallie and Rannoch – four ospreys from the Loch Arkaig Pine Forest – are among the 105 million names

The rover landed in a Martian crater called Jezero, looking for signs of past microbial life

The nesting site in the Loch Arkaig Pine Forest owned by Woodland Trust Scotland near Fort William in Lochaber can be viewed online via a webcam

Linda Keene of Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire was among those who followed the fate of Louis and Aila and their two chicks in 2019 when Nasa’s “Send Your Name to Mars” campaign caught the attention

She submitted the names and they were engraved into the tiny chips along with the millions of others

George Anderson of Woodland Trust Scotland said, “Loch Arkaig’s ospreys became very famous last year when they became a lockdown hit for people stuck at home desperate to connect with nature

Rover Curiosity visited geological features that were given Scottish place names by scientists, including St Kilda, Newmachar, Benbecula and Jura

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Send name to Mars