Sharanya is a minor planet or asteroid discovered by the LINEAR programme of MIT Lincoln Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and named by researchers there for a young girl, S. Sharanya, from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, a student at Avila Convent in that town, in recognition for reaching the finals of the 2003 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair http://www.ll.mit.edu/LINEAR/winners_2003.html http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=71844&headline=Massachusetts~Institute~names~planets~after~two~Indian~girls http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/abstract/91/6/1002.