Star-Gayzing : Out Of This World - Part 8

Today I conclude my mini-series on asteroids named after lgbt people. We come right up to date with the naming of asteroids discovered since 2001. As before I’ve quoted from the original citations and added extra information were necessary.

(57901) Hitchens                   Discovered 9 Feb. 2002. Name published 11 Nov. 2010. “Christopher E. Hitchens (b.1949), an intellectual of broad interests who lists “disputation” among his hobbies, lectures copiously and writes for a number of periodicals as a pundit and critic. Hitchens is the author of numerous books, including works on Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Mother Theresa and George Orwell.” Hitchens died in 2011, and wrote in his autobiography of his affair with several future members of the British Cabinet.

(142091) Omerblaes              Discovered 29 Aug. 2002. Name published 22 July 2013. “Omer Michael Blaes (b.1961) is an astrophysicist at the University of California Santa Barbara, working on the theory of accretion onto compact objects. He is best known for his contributions to the hydrodynamics of accretion disks, including analysis of shear instabilities and the magneto-rotational instability.” Dr. Blaes in the compiler of the Out Astronomers list I mentioned in January.

(155083) Banneker    Discovered 30 Sept. 2005. Name published 4 Oct. 2009. “Benjamin Banneker (1731–1806) was a freeborn African-American farmer, clockmaker, writer and scientist. Self-taught in mathematics and astronomy, he wrote six published almanacs that sold throughout the mid-Atlantic region. He assisted in the 1791 survey of the Federal Territory (the District of Columbia).”

(246247) Sheldoncooper      Discovered on 20 Sept. 2007. Name published 3 July 2012. “Sheldon Cooper, portrayed by [openly gay actor] Jim Parsons, is a geeky fictional character on the TV series ‘The Big Bang Theory’.”

(212991) Garcíalorca            Discovered 23 Feb. 2009. Name published 25 May 2010. “Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director, best known for his “Rural Trilogy”, consisting of the plays “Bodas de sangre”, “Yerma” and “La Casa de Bernarda Alba”. He was murdered by Nationalist militia on 1936 Aug. 19, shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.”

ASTEROID ALLIES
Asteroids that are not named after lgbt people but have lgbt links.

(38980) Gaoyaojie     Discovered 23 Oct. 2000. Name published 2 Apr. 2007. “Gao yao-jie (b.1927), a retired medical doctor, was a pioneer on AIDS prevention in China. In 2001 she won the Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. Recently she received the Vital Voices Global Partnership award.”

(64291) Anglee          Discovered 23 Oct. 2001. Name published 7 June 2009. “Ang Lee (b.1954) is a Chinese-American film director, whose films include ‘The Wedding Banquet’ (1993), ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (2000) and ‘Brokeback Mountain’ (2005). This last film won him the Academy Award for Best Director.”

(196000) Izzard          Discovered 15 Sept. 2002. Name published 9 Feb. 2009 “Eddie Izzard (b.1962) is a British stand-up comic and dramatic actor whose writing and performance as an ‘executive transvestite’ in Dress to Kill earned him two Emmys. He co-wrote and starred in 'The Riches' and has prominent roles in ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Ocean’s 12’.”

(90481) Wollstonecraft         Discovered 16 Feb. 2004. Name published 25 Jan. 2005. “Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a revolutionary champion of gender equality. Arguing that the rights of women, as those of men, rely on intellectual, economic and legal autonomy, she challenged the mores of her time and influenced feminist thought for centuries."

(232923) Adalovelace           Discovered 15 Jan. 2005. Name published 25 Apr 2013. “Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815–1852), daughter of George Gordon Byron, was an English mathematician and writer known mainly for her work on Babbage’s analytical engine. Her notes are important in the early history of computers, so she is considered the world’s first computer programmer.” Lord Byron has asteroid 3306 named after him.

Even though this is the last in this official mini-series there are many new names given to asteroids every year and I intend to give an annual update on those named after lgbt people and their allies in the future.