ROME — Pope Gregory XIII, the 16th century pontiff responsible for what is today known as the Gregorian calendar, now has another, celestial claim to fame.
A working group of the International Astronomical Union has named an asteroid after him, the Vatican Observatory said Tuesday.
The “560974 Ugoboncompagni” — Gregory’s birth name was Ugo Boncompagni — was announced along with 72 other named asteroids in the Feb. 27 update of the union’s Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature.
A full moon is seen above the St. Peter's Basilica on Feb. 26, 2013, at the Vatican.
Also included in the new group are three Jesuits affiliated with the Vatican Observatory, bringing to more than 30 the number of Jesuit-named asteroids, the Observatory said in a statement.
Gregory, who lived from 1502-1585, along with an Italian astronomer and a Jesuit mathematician corrected the Julian calendar and introduced a new method of calculating leap years that resulted in what is now known as the Gregorian calendar.
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The Vatican Observatory traces its 1582 origins to Gregory’s pontificate and the Gregorian calendar reform. Located at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo in the hills south of Rome, the Observatory today houses a dozen priests and brothers who study the universe. It is headed by Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno.
According to a statement from the Observatory, the process to name an asteroid — a relatively small space body in orbit around the sun — involves a provisional designation based on its date of discovery, followed by a permanent number.
“At this point its discoverer is invited to suggest a name for it,” the Observatory said, adding that pet names and commercial names are prohibited, and that 100 years must pass before naming an asteroid after an individual or certain events.
The nomenclature working group, made up of 15 astronomers, then judges the proposed names.
Six things you probably didn't know about asteroids
Asteroids, meteroids and meteorites, oh my!
Do you think a meteor is an asteroid that has entered Earth's atmosphere? If so, technically, you are wrong. A meteor is actually just the "light phenomena" from such an event, according to NASA.
Confused? Here's some handy definitions courtesy of the space agency:
Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive, rocky body orbiting the Sun.
Comet: A relatively small, at times active, object whose ices can vaporize in sunlight forming an atmosphere (coma) of dust and gas and, sometimes, a tail of dust and/or gas.
Meteoroid: A small particle from a comet or asteroid orbiting the Sun.
Meteor: The light phenomena which results when a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere and vaporizes; a shooting star.
Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and lands upon the Earth's surface.
One asteroid is named after a cat
The International Astronomical Union's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature does the doling out of asteroid names. And while the group doesn't like naming asteroids after pets, according to NASA, one cat did sneak through.
That feline's name: Mr. Spock. And yes, it was named after the Star Trek character played by the late Leonard Nimoy.
Want to see if you share a name with an asteroid? Head on over to the UAC's website and see for yourself.
The first asteroid is no longer an asteroid
In the late 1700s, scientists were still looking for a missing planet between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids didn't exist yet in astronomy.
Enter Celestial Police member Giuseppe Piazzi, who in 1801 discovered what he first thought was a star orbiting the sun. After further observation, he named the body "Ceres," hoping that it truly was the lost planet. But it wasn't to be. Piazzi's discovery instead became the first and largest asteroid in the asteroid belt.
Then, more than 200 years later, Piazzi got his wish. Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
Hundreds of tons
Hundreds of tons of rocky debris hits the Earth every day.
Most of it burns up harmlessly. But anything larger than a mile in diameter could have worldwide effects. And there's at least one such huge rock out there that we know of: Toutatis, shown above in a 1996 radar image. The asteroid measures more than 2 1/2 miles in diameter.
