The London neighbourhood with a massive Mars crater named after it

There is a Mars crater named after this south London suburb of Tooting (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

It’s probably better known for its curry houses, but the unassuming south London suburb of Tooting has a rather more unusual claim to fame – there’s a Mars crater named after it.

The 17.5 mile wide impact crater was given the moniker in 2005 by the British planetary scientist who discovered it, Pete Mouginis-Mark.

Martian craters less than 37 miles (60 km) in diameter are always named after towns (or suburbs in cities) and Pete decided on Tooting as it’s where he grew up.

Not far from the crater lies a river valley, which reportedly evoked memories of the area for him, writes My London News.

At the time of the naming, Pete, who was acting director of the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, said: ‘I thought my mum and brother would get a kick out of having their home town paired with a land form on Mars.’

London mayor Sadiq Khan, who was the MP for Tooting when the naming took place, said afterwards: ‘This is getting a lot of attention, not only because of its twinning to our fantastic area, but also because this is probably the youngest large meteorite crater on Mars.’

Pete left Tooting, which is part of Wandsworth, in 1970 and and has lived for several years in Hawaii.

Tooting, the crater, is 17.5 miles wide (Picture: NASA)

Planetary scientist Pete Mouginis-Mark grew up in Tooting (Picture: Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology)

What are other Mars craters named after?

Other towns and areas that have craters named after them include Quorn and Dingo, both in Australia, Loon in Ontario, Luck in Wisconsin and Chive in Canada.

British towns that have namesake craters include Maidstone and Crewe.

Larger craters, meanwhile, are named after distinguished scientists or writers. So far there is a Wells, after HG, Heinlein, after the sci-fi writer, and Beer, after a 19th-century German astronomer, Wilhelm Beer.

Where does the name Tooting come from?

The name Tooting may come from ‘the people of Tota’ (Picture: Getty Images)

The origin of the name Tooting is disputed. One theory is that Tooting comes from ‘the people of Tota’, with Tota potentially being a local Anglo-Saxon leader.

Alternatively, it the name could come from the old meaning of the verb, ‘to tout’ which was to look out.

There may have been a watchtower on the road to London and it was named after that or the people that worked there.

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