Daily quiz | On asteroid names
Professor Jayant Murthy, former acting director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru.
START THE QUIZ
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In the inner region of the asteroid belt lies an asteroid about 10 km wide, discovered by astronomer Martin Watt in 1982. It is an extremely slow rotator with a rotation period of 44 days. Name the British philologist and writer for whom Watt named the asteroid. Three of this person’s books were adapted as films released in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
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Astronomers discovered two asteroids in 1989 and 1996 and named them right then. In September 2011, they made their closest approaches to the earth so far – a wonderful coincidence because the people they’d been named for were also the stars of a hit rom-com released in 1999. Name the asteroids.
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This asteroid was discovered in 2004 and subsequently given the name of an antagonist from the TV show Star Gate SG-1 because astronomers thought it could one day slam into the earth and trigger and global catastrophe (and because its discoverers were fans of the show). Name the asteroid.
4 / 5 |
A Japanese astronomer discovered this asteroid in 1991 and named it after a monster that appears in a famous nonsensical poem. The author of this poem later said he named the monster after Anglo-Saxon words for “the result of much excited and voluble discussion”. Name the asteroid.
5 / 5 |
This asteroid is named for a poem and a warrior of Old English literature. It belongs to a group that also includes the rock that crashed in Chelyabinsk in 2013 and the asteroid Bennu, which has a 0.13% chance of smashing into the earth between 2178 and 2290. Name the asteroid.
