As a child growing up in Slovenia in 1999, Dr Rok Nežič couldn't have known that an asteroid that was discovered in New Mexico that year would be named after him almost three decades later. The Orchard County may be best known for its apples, but for Nežič the real attraction was astronomy. He first arrived to Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in 2015 to complete his doctorate in space and climate physics, and has remained there ever since.
More than a decade on, he is one of two AOP employees to have recently been chosen to have a celestial body named after them. Nežič, who works at the planetarium as a tours and outreach officer, said he thought it was "so cool" when he learned that asteroids can be named after people. Speaking to BBC News NI, Nežič said he wished he "could get there some day" and, now that he has, he described it as "a dream come true".
"I'm not sure how to believe it myself,” he admitted. He explains that an asteroid is "a smallish rock in space" compared to planets, and that his one is named (20560) Nežič., external "That's its official name, so the number there tells you basically the order of discovery." It is currently "sitting safely out in the asteroid belt and just going around the Sun, just like we are", he explained. The naming process for small bodies in the solar system is governed by the International Astronomical Union, external.
Asteroids can be named by their discoverers once their orbits are sufficiently known. Nežič's asteroid is 10.9km across, while that belonging to his colleague Shane Kelly is 15.6km. "They're both actually quite large as far as these asteroids that are named after people tend to be, because most of the really large ones were discovered first," Nežič said.
"So they were named a long time ago, and now we're finding smaller and smaller ones." Nežič's asteroid was discovered by "one of the big missions", he said. "This is an Earth-based mission in this case, which is looking for lots of asteroids, essentially, because the more we know about them, the more we know where they're going, the more we know which ones are not hitting us, including mine and Shane's." To be considered for an asteroid namesake, someone must nominate you, and in Nežič's case, two people put his name forward. He doesn't know who chose him for the honour - but his PhD supervisor, and a former astronomer from the observatory nominated him.
Nežič focused on comets with polarised light for his studies and years later is "still" talking about space. The planetarium and observatory is "punching well above our weight", he said. "Even though we're a small institution, people who work here can just focus on the research so much that we have really top researchers in the field." The planetarium's neighbouring observatory has monitored the weather for more than than 230 years.
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