INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
XXIVth GENERAL ASSEMBLY, MANCHESTER, UK
7 – 18 August 2000
 
Media release
From Jacqueline Mitton (Meeting Press Officer)
jmitton@dial.pipex.com
phone: +44 (0)1223 564914
 
Phone contact 7 – 16 August [Meeting Press Room]
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Date released: 15 August 2000
 
ASTEROIDS NAMED FOR ASTRONOMERS – AND A HISTORIC TELESCOPE
 
Several asteroid names very recently approved by the International Astronomical Union have been announced at this time specially to coincide with the IAU’s General Assembly in Manchester.
 
Three honour former Presidents of the London-based Royal Astronomical Society: Sir Fred Hoyle, Professor Carole Jordan, and Sir Bernard Lovell. Their asteroids will be known as Hoyle, Carolejordan and Bernardlovell.
 
Two have been inspired by the recent restoration by the 7th Earl of Rosse of the great reflecting telescope at Birr Castle in Ireland, completed by the 3rd Earl in 1845. One is to be called ‘Leviathan’ the popular nickname of the telescope, which was for 75 years the largest in the world. The other is ‘Rosseven’ — a contraction of ‘Rosse Seven’ for the present Seventh Earl.
 
Danish astronomer Dr Johannes Andersen, who has served as General Secretary of the IAU from 1997 to 2000, has also been honoured with an asteroid to be called ‘Johannes’.
 
More details of the asteroids are given in the citation notes below.
 
Asteroids are named by their discoverers and all six of these were discovered by Dr Edward Bowell of the Lowell Observatory. Often, discoverers name asteroids for friends, colleagues, family members, places, famous people (poets, musicians, writers etc.). Originally, asteroids were named after female deities, but the supply of such names ran out in the 19th century.
 
Under the procedures of the IAU, discoverers submit names for asteroids to Dr Brian G. Marsden, Director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They are then passed on to the Small Bodies Names Committee of Division III of the IAU.
 
Asteroids are eligible for naming when they have been numbered. On discovery, asteroids are accorded a preliminary designation (e.g. 1997 BF3). Then, when the asteroid’s orbit has been sufficiently well determined that its position can be very accurately predicted for many decades, it can be numbered.
 
There are rules for the acceptability of names. They must not be too similar to existing names. They must not be obscene or objectionable; they must not pertain to politicians, religious leaders, or military leaders — unless long dead.
 
IAU Commission 20, which deals with the motions of asteroids and comets, along with their discovery, is always seeking suggestions for asteroid names. (Comets are named for their discoverers.) In particular, asteroid discoverers lose their right to name their discoveries when 10 years have passed from the date of numbering. There is usually a pool of asteroids ready to be named. Suggestions can be sent to the Minor Planet Center mpc@cfa.harvard.edu.
 
CITATION NOTES
 
(8077) Hoyle = 1986 AW2 Discovered 1986 January 12 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. Fred Hoyle (b. 1915) is the leading proponent of steady-state cosmology. He predicted an excited state in the carbon atom and contributed extensively to the study of nucleosynthesis in stars. Hoyle served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society 1971-73.
 
(8078) Carolejordan = 1986 RS2. Discovered 1986 September 6 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. Carole Jordan, professor of physics at Somerville College, Oxford University, served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society 1994-96 and as chairman of the National Organizing Committee for the Manchester IAU General Assembly (1997-2000).
 
(8079) Bernardlovell = 1986 XF1 Discovered 1985 December 4 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. Bernard Lovell (b. 1913) founded Jodrell Bank Observatory, which boasts the world’s first large steerable radio telescope. Lovell served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society 1969-71.
 
(8813) Leviathan = 1983 WF1 Discovered 1983 November 29 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. The Leviathan of Parsonstown is the nickname of the great reflecting telescope at Birr Castle, County Offaly, Ireland. Completed by the Third Earl of Rosse in 1845, the telescope was for 75 years the largest in the world.
 
(8814) Rosseven = 1983 XG Discovered 1983 December 1 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. William Brendan Parsons, Seventh Earl of Rosse (b. 1936) was inspired to restore the 1.8 m reflecting telescope (the "Leviathan of Parsonstown") at Birr Castle, County Offaly, Ireland, to full working order. The task took three years and was completed in 1999.
 
(9300) Johannes = 1985 PS Discovered 1985 Aug. 14 by E. Bowell at the Anderson Mesa Station of the Lowell Observatory. Johannes Andersen (b. 1943) of the Niels Bohr Institute for Astronomy, Denmark, works mainly on the chemical and dynamical evolution of the Milky Way’s disk. As IAU General Secretary (1997-2000), he has offered sage guidance on the IAU’s role with near-earth objects.