An asteroid was named after the Maldives islands.
NASA space explorer Ron Baalke tweeted on 4 June 2015 saying the Asteroid 27596 has been named in the honour of Maldives.
Asteroid 27596 has been named in honor of the Maldives island.
@maldives pic.twitter.com/kPCumh6V6Z
— Ron Baalke (@RonBaalke) June 4، 2015
The asteroid was discovered on 16 February 2001 by W. K. Y. Yeung at Desert Beaver. According to NASA، the first observation of the asteroid was in 1954.
The asteroid is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter in our Solar System. Its distance between Earth is 1.26373 AU or 1.26373 times the distance between Earth and the Sun، which is 149،597،870،700 x 1.26373 = 189051317139.711 metres.
This information is mirrored on the Maldives Wikipedia page، although no further details are mentioned on Wikipedia.