The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has named an asteroid (formally called a ‘minor planet’) discovered on November 11, 2006, after Indian classical singer Pandit Jasraj, according to a report in September 2019. The minor planet is between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Before him, other artistes have had minor planets named after them and they include Johann Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Rabindranath Tagore.
Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj (b. 1930) is an exponent of Indian classical vocal music. He is the recipient of numerous awards, honours, and titles, including the prestigious Padma Vibhushan and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award. “His distinctive voice traverses a remarkable four-and-a-half octaves,” as stated by an IAU citation available on the California Institute of Technology’s database on small planetary bodies.
The asteroid was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey, whose telescopes are based in Arizona in the United States.
The Naming Process
Once it is determined that a celestial body has indeed been discovered, a provisional name is given. This name has the year of discovery, two letters of the alphabet and, perhaps, two numbers. The minor planet that has been named after Pandit Jasraj was initially called ‘2006VP32’.
When more information is available about the object, especially with regard to its orbit, and after it has been sighted on a minimum of four occasions, it is entitled to have a permanent number. In the case of the planet named after Jasraj, the number allotted was 300128. Only after this is the discoverer invited to suggest a name.
The privilege of naming a planet is first given to discoverers, who have a decade’s time to propose a name. But there is a process for it, and all names are not acceptable.
There are restrictions such as the proposed name must have 16 characters or less. It must be ‘non-offensive’, according to the criteria of the IAU which is a global organisation of professional astronomers that also decides on definitions of fundamental astronomical and physical constants. It should be not too similar to an existing name. Names of political or military leaders can be given only after a century of their death. Likewise, names referring to political and military events can be suggested only 100 years after the events. Names of pets and names of a commercial nature are not encouraged by IAU.
Interestingly, religious sentiments have a place in the naming process recognised by the AU, such as when naming objects discovered beyond Neptune. Such objects are supposed to be given names of ‘creation deities’ only. An example is Pluto.
The discoverer/discovery team is expected to write a short citation, explaining the reasons for assigning the name, according to the guidelines of the IAU. All names proposed are judged by its 15-member Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature (CSBN.
As of September 2019, there are 5,41,131 numbered minor planets of a total of 7,97,078 observed bodies, with the rest being unnumbered minor planets.
Minor planet
Minor planets are celestial objects that orbit the Sun that are not large enough for their gravity to pull them into a spherical shape. This distinguishes a minor planet i.e., a ‘small Solar System body’, from planets or ‘dwarf planets’, that are almost spherical. ‘small Solar System bodies’ refer to asteroids, comets, and several other celestial objects that go around the Sun.