The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the global body responsible for naming celestial objects, announced the names this month through its Working Group Small Body Nomenclature bulletin.
The asteroid (651104) Bobola, previously designated 2012 VY87, was named after Andrzej Bobola, a Polish Jesuit priest who lived from 1591 to 1657.
Born in Strachocina, in southeastern Poland, Bobola studied in Braniewo and Vilnius before serving as a preacher, confessor, prison and shelter chaplain, parish priest, and Jesuit superior in Bobruisk.
Bobola was killed in Janów Poleski and later recognized by the Catholic Church as a martyr. He was beatified in 1853 and canonized in 1938.
Andrzej Bobola. Image: Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie
The asteroid was discovered on November 14, 2012, at the Mount Graham Observatory by Kazimieras Černis, also known as Kazimierz Czernis, a Polish-Lithuanian astronomer at Vilnius University, and Richard P. Boyle.
A second asteroid, (818660) Capar, previously designated 2013 VP24, was named after Milena Capar and Kamil Capar, Polish enthusiasts of mineralogy and meteoritics.
For more than a decade, they have organized exhibitions and seminars on minerals and meteorites across Europe, presenting and discussing their collections.
That object was discovered on November 6, 2013, at the Rantiga Observatory in Tincana by Polish astronomers Michał Kusiak and Michał Żołnowski.
Both asteroids orbit the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Bobola completes one orbit in 2.56 years, while Capar has an orbital period of 3.55 years.
Under IAU rules, asteroid discoverers may propose names once an object’s orbit has been reliably established. A specialist committee then checks whether the proposal meets naming criteria and does not duplicate an existing name. Once approved and published by the IAU, the name becomes official.
Polish astronomers including Kusiak, Żołnowski and Czernis have helped secure dozens of Polish asteroid names, honoring figures ranging from monarchs and well-known public personalities to people recognized for contributions to science, sports, film, and other fields.
Polish names are already well represented in the catalog of minor planets. They include (1322) Coppernicus, whose unusual double “p” reflects a spelling apparently used by Nicolaus Copernicus himself; (3784) Chopin and (21059) Penderecki, honoring two of Poland’s best-known composers; and (3836) Lem, named after master science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem.
Lem’s fictional space traveler Ijon Tichy also has his own asteroid, (343000) Ijontichy.
Other examples include (90698) Kościuszko, named for the Polish military leader and engineer who helped fortify West Point during the American Revolutionary War; (555468) Tokarczuk, honoring Nobel Prize-winning writer Olga Tokarczuk; and (352214) Czochralski, named for Jan Czochralski, whose crystal-growth method became crucial to the semiconductor industry.
A more recent example is (805997) Wolszczan, named for astronomer Aleksander Wolszczan, co-discoverer of the first confirmed planets outside the solar system.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP