Focus On: (1388) Aphrodite
Name origin: Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. As one of the principal Olympian gods, there are multiple myths about her.
Name origin: Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. As one of the principal Olympian gods, there are multiple myths about her.
Probably named for the Monterosa, a ship used by the University of Hamburg on their outings on the North Sea.
Australian-British professor Gilbert Murray (1866-1957) helped Austria recover from World War I in 1920. He was an outstanding scholar of Ancient Greek literature, language and culture. Involved in the League of Nations from 1916, he was also president of the Ethical Union (now Humanists UK) in 1929 and 1930, and a founder of Oxfam.
Name origin: Genus of perennial flowering plants native to southern Africa, commonly called the natal or bush lily. They have green, long leaves and mainly bell-shaped flowers, with berry fruits. The genus itself is named after Charlotte Percy (née Clive), who first cultivated the plant in the U.K.
Named in honour of Ernst Heinrich Bruns (1848-1919), a German mathematician and astronomer, who also contributed to the development of the field of theoretical geodesy (measurement of the Earth’s relative geometry, gravity and orientation over time). He was mainly engaged in developing the theoretical side of Earth’s shape.
Name origin: Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (1861-1930), a Norwegian polymath, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian. He led the team that first crossed the interior of Greenland, reached a record northern latitude exploring to the North Pole, studied zoology and oceanography, and worked with the League of Nations.
Stateira was a queen of ancient Persia who died about 400 BCE; wife of Artaxerxes II. She had a son, who became Artaxerxes III. She was a popular ruler, apparently because she talked to ordinary people, but did not get on well with her mother-in-law Parysatis, who eventually poisoned her.
Name origin: Simeïs Observatory and the town of Simeïs, Crimea, Ukraine, where the object was first discovered. A total of 150 minor planets were found at the observatory, which operated as a research site until the mid-1950s and is now used for studying satellite orbits.
Aguntum was an ancient Roman site in what is now East Tirol, Austria (about 4km east of Lienz, the discoverer’s birthplace). The city was likely built as a mining and trading centre due to local supplies of iron, copper, zinc and gold.
Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in Middlesex, Jamaica. It was laid out in 1816, and named after Viscount Mandeville, the eldest son of the Duke of Manchester, who was then governor of Jamaica.