24 June 2021
Asteroids named after LTU researchers
Two asteroids located in the Main Asteroid Belt has been named Toliou and Tsirvoulis in recognition of Luleå University of Technology’s space researchers Athanasia Toliou and Georgios Tsirvoulis.
– It is a great honor to have your work recognized by the community and it is a motivation to keep working hard!, says Athanasia ”Sissy” Toliou, who, like Georgios Tsirvoulis, is a post doc researcher in Space Systems at Luleå University of Technology in Kiruna.
Although discoverers of asteroids can propose a name for the asteroid once its orbit is known accurately enough (there are asteroids named Kiruna and Luleå for example), it is also a long tradition among the small-body researchers community to name asteroids after individuals who have significantly contributed to the field, after approval by theInternational Astronomical Union's Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature
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– The naming often takes place when the person has finished a PhD and is working as a postdoc. It is thus not "just" having an asteroid named after you, but a merit awarded to you by your peers for the work that you have done as a member of the community, explains Mikael Granvik, Associate Professor of Space Systems.
Located in the Main Asteroid Belt
He also has an asteroid named after himself.
– It was named before I started at Luleå University of Technology. Hence I think Sissy's and George's naming citations are the first ones that explicitly mention that they are working at LTU.
Asteroids Tsirvoulis and Toliou are located in the Main Asteroid Belt, a population of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Asteroid Tsirvoulis orbits at 2.6 astronomical units away from the Sun and has a diameter ~6.4 kilometers and Toliou at 2.4 astronomical units, with a diameter of ~4.3 kilometers.
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