Four Asteroids Named over ITB Astronomers

Oleh UKM Student English Forum

Editor -

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id - On Novermber 2010, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) agreed on naming Asteroid 12176, 12177, 12178, 12179 over the names of the former heads of the Bosscha Observatorium; Bambang Hidayat, Moedji Raharto, Dhani Herdiwijaya, and Taufiq Hidayat. These asteroids shall henceforth be known as 12176 Hidayat, 12177 Raharto, 12178 Dhani, and 12179 Taufiq.

Naming asteroids is usually started with the year of their discovery, then followed by letter (or sometimes number) codes, i.e 1989 AC and 2002 LM60. After the orbit is known, the asteroids will then be calatogued with numbers in the Minor Planet Center database. Specific naming will then be given based on rules set by IAU. These names are suggested by their discoverers along with the reasons.

Last November, IAU announced that 64 news asteroids were discovered; four among them were named over Indonesian astronomers. This is a form of reward IAU gave to the Bosscha Observatiorium as a site of importance in the development of astronomy in the southern skies.

The four asteroids were discovered by couple Cornelis Johannes and Ingrid van Houten that underwent an analysis from a photography plate taken by Tom Gehrels on October 16th, 1977 in the Palomar - Leiden Trojan Survey. The discovery of these asteroids were done using the Schmidt 122cm telescope in the Palomar Observatory. In the process, the imaging was done using 68 plates to survey the trojans between Mars and Jupiter.


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