海角大神

Engineering whiz kid Ahmed Mohamed has had a busy month: from Texas, to San Francisco, to Sudan, to Washington, D. C. Next stop, Mars?

The 14-year-old, whose homemade clock got him arrested when high school teachers in Irving, Texas, mistook it for a bomb, capped off several weeks of high-profile visits with tech and political leaders with the biggest invite of all: after President Obama reached out in a message retweeted more than 430,000 times, Ahmed was asked to attend 鈥淎stronomy Night鈥� at the White House Monday evening.

The astronomy fan 鈥� he was sporting a NASA T-shirt at the time of his arrest 鈥撀爃ad a chance to chat with astronaut Alvin Drew on the South Lawn, where he was spotted grinning broadly as the two posed for pictures.

But he鈥檚 scheduled to come even closer to space: Homer Hickam, whose own teenage experiments in Coalwood, W. Va., led to a career as a NASA engineer, and whose autobiographical novel "Rocket Boys" became a bestselling book and the film "October Sky," has provided a scholarship for Ahmed to attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala.聽

鈥淲e need to inspire more young people to ask about the stars,鈥� Mr. Obama said at Monday鈥檚 event, echoing his original tweet to Ahmed. 鈥淲e have to watch for and cultivate and encourage those glimmers of curiosity and possibility 鈥撀爊ot suppress them, not squelch them.鈥�

The president also reminded listeners of NASA鈥檚 next goal: humans on the red planet by the 2030s. 鈥淪ome of you might be on your way to Mars,鈥� he told young people.

With help from teens, Obama took a turn peering through telescopes and checking out moon rocks and meteorites 鈥斅燼nd taking selfies, of course.

The first Astronomy Night, billed as 鈥淎 Celebration of Science, Technology, and Space,鈥� took place in 2009, and is part of the administration鈥檚 effort to promote interest in so-called STEM fields, which include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Ahmed and Obama briefly chatted and hugged on the lawn Monday. The teen has said he hopes to attend MIT and become an engineer.

Although he has expressed appreciation for the president鈥檚 support, Ahmed may not have felt so starstruck to meet him, after also visiting Google, Facebook, and, more controversially, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir since his clock misadventure went viral.聽

鈥淭hank you for your support! I really didn鈥檛 think people would care about a muslim boy,鈥� Ahmed tweeted on September 16 as #IStandWithAhmed took over the Internet.聽

Many of his supporters objected to the school鈥檚 alleged anti-Muslim bias in assuming that his clock was a bomb, while others called it staff鈥檚 due diligence in an era of heightened school security.

Asked what he鈥檚 learned from his four weeks of fame 鈥撀爏o far 鈥撀燗hmed told the Associated Press, "Don't judge a person by the way they look. Always judge them by their heart."

This report contains material from the Associated Press and Reuters.