(doctor) Detlev van Ravenswey
Portuguese astrophysicist Nuno Peisinho gave his name to an asteroid discovered in 1998 and measuring just over 10 kilometers in diameter, the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA), where he is a researcher, said this Monday.
Formerly named (40210) 1998 SL56, the asteroid has been renamed (40210). Small fish, by decision of the Working Group on the Nomenclature of Small Corps of the International Astronomical Union (UAI).
Discovered on September 16, 1998 during an observation campaign at Lowell Observatory in the United States, it has a diameter of about ten kilometers and is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, at a distance from the Sun about three times that of the Sun from Earth, completing its orbit in about 5.3 years.
Your new name has been selected in tribute to Nuno Peixinho, an astrophysicist from the University of Coimbra, who is the only Portuguese in an extensive list of scientists who were assigned to UAI small celestial bodies in June under the direction of Portuguese astronomer Teresa Lago.
Asteroid Peisinho “is a type of asteroid that, if it falls towards Earth, could cause a mass extinction,” the IA said in a statement. But the Portuguese astrophysicist reassures him, saying that he does not pose a danger to the Earth.
“Knowing that there is an asteroid in space now the same size as the one that supposedly hit the Earth 66 million years ago. Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinctionincluding the famous dinosaurs … it leaves me speechless, ”commented Nuno Peisinho, an expert on the physical and chemical characteristics of small bodies in the solar system, quoted in the statement.
According to IA, a little more than a million small bodies are included in the catalogs of the solar system, about half a million already have a permanent designation, but only 22 505 have names.
Small bodies in the solar system “is a generic term for asteroids, icy bodies (such as comets and trans-Neptunian objects) and their satellites.”
Initially, one of these bodies “receives a provisional designation in accordance with a well-defined formula, including the year of discovery, two letters and, if necessary, other numbers.”
Then, “when its orbit is well enough defined, the body receives permanent designationwhich consists of adding a number to the temporary designation. “
Finally, at the suggestion of the authors of the discovery of a small celestial body, the UAI Small Body Nomenclature Working Group assigns a name.
