The International Astronomical Union (IAU) named an asteroid after an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA).
It is almost three kilometers in diameter and takes four and a half years to go around the Sun. we talk about 2001 Highway 160, or rather, the asteroid 32599 Pedromachado.
Peter Machado, researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) and professor at Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, was honored by the Working Group for the Nomenclature of Small Bodies (WGSBN) of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), with the attribution of its name to an asteroid.
The announcement was made in Asteroids, Comets and Meteors Conference, which took place in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, and was published in WGSBN Newsletter.
Pedro Machado is a specialist in planetary atmospheres, but this is recognition for his contribution to another field of study of the Solar System: the detection and characterization of asteroids and other objects that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune, called transneptunians.
In some cases, this work crosses the study of atmospheres, as it involves the study of transition regions between the atmosphere and outer space, the so-called exospheres, in which particles are lost to space.
“It is an unexpected honor and a great satisfaction to see my name on the list of new asteroid nominations”, says Pedro Machado. "I am very grateful for this recognition of my work by the scientific community."
32599 Pedroaxe orbits the Sun between the planets Mars and Jupiter, in the region known as the Asteroid Belt. It was discovered in 2001 through the program Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS), gives NASA and Lowell Observatory, for the detection of space objects in near-Earth orbits.
According to process of naming astronomical objects, it was initially given a provisional name, 2001 Highway 160, which includes the year of discovery and letters and numbers that indicate the day of the year and the order of discovery.
After its orbit was reliably determined, it received the definitive designation of 32599, by the Minor Planet Center from the IAU. Only from that moment on could a name be proposed for this asteroid for evaluation by the Working Group for the Nomenclature of Small Bodies.
With this attribution, Pedro Machado joins other IA researchers, Nuno Peixinho (IA and University of Coimbra) and Pedro Lacerda (Pedro Nunes Institute and AI), who also saw their work recognized with the attribution of their names to asteroids 40210 Goldfish e 10694 Lacerda.
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