Asteroid named after pope behind Gregorian calendar reform

ROME — Pope Gregory XIII, the sixteenth century pontiff accountable for what’s right now referred to as the Gregorian calendar, now has one other, celestial declare to fame.

A working group of the Worldwide Astronomical Union has named an asteroid after him, the Vatican Observatory mentioned Tuesday.

The “560974 Ugoboncompagni” — Gregory’s beginning identify was Ugo Boncompagni — was introduced together with 72 different named asteroids within the Feb. 27 replace of the union’s Working Group for Small Our bodies Nomenclature.

Additionally included within the new group are three Jesuits affiliated with the Vatican Observatory, bringing to greater than 30 the variety of Jesuit-named asteroids, the Observatory mentioned in a press release.

Gregory, who lived from 1502-1585, together with an Italian astronomer and a Jesuit mathematician corrected the Julian calendar and launched a brand new methodology of calculating leap years that resulted in what’s now referred to as the Gregorian calendar.

The Vatican Observatory traces its 1582 origins to Gregory’s hold forth and the Gregorian calendar reform. Positioned on the papal summer season residence in Castel Gandolfo within the hills south of Rome, the Observatory right now homes a dozen monks and brothers who research the universe. It’s headed by Jesuit Brother Man Consolmagno.

In keeping with a press release from the Observatory, the method to call an asteroid — a comparatively small area physique in orbit around the solar — includes a provisional designation based mostly on its date of discovery, adopted by a everlasting quantity.

“At this level its discoverer is invited to recommend a reputation for it,” the Observatory mentioned, including that pet names and business names are prohibited, and that 100 years should cross earlier than naming an asteroid after a person or sure occasions.

The nomenclature working group, made up of 15 astronomers, then judges the proposed names.