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PHOTO: “Mohawk Man” Bobak Ferdowsi, An Unlikely But Undeniable Geek Sex Object

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Almost immediately after the Mars Curiosity mission was seen by millions, NASA got itself a new pin-up boy: Bobak Ferdowsi, the cute mohawk-sporting flight director with an infectious smile.

Sure, a lot of the excitement about Bobak is because he doesn’t fit the mold of what we think of when we think of NASA: He’s not some whitebread buzz-cut like Neil Armstrong or Major Healey. He’s young, he’s multicultural, and (if the hair is any indication) he knows how to party.

But for a certain segment of the Internet, Ferdowsi is just, well, a hottie.  He’s got a killer smile, looks like Joe Jonas and has a huge… brain. For some of us, that’s the perfect combination. Before Sunday’s landing Ferdowsi’s Twitter account, @tweetsoutloud, had less than 200 followers. By Monday, it was more than 21,000 followers.

As of this post, it’s at almost 34,000. That’s not all just intellectual attraction.

“I did not, of course, have any idea of what was going to happen. I’ve been having fun with my hair for each of our major events, a different color hair for launch, shaved things in the side of my head,” he tells BuzzFeed. “Little did I realize what was going to happen last night.”

Oh, we knew right away.

Sadly, Bobak is straight—and attached—but if we can put a rover on Mars, we can figure out a way to overcome those tiny obstacles, right?

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