Published on : 30/06/2022 – 02:06
For the first time, a Malagasy name has just been assigned to an asteroid, a real source of pride for the country’s astronomers. Located in our solar system, between the planets Mars and Jupiter, the star was baptized Besely, named after a small village located in the center-west of the island, which has hosted since May 2022, the first robotic astronomical observatory in the world. country. Information revealed on the occasion of the international day of asteroids Thursday, June 30.
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
It is a large pebble that hovers more than 100 million kilometers above our heads, five kilometers wide in diameter and which takes about five years to revolve around the sun. Until now, it was known under the code name 2000AS188, but now it is called Besely: the very first asteroid to bear a Malagasy name.
Andoniaina Rajaonarivelo, president of the Haikintana Astronomy association and director of Besely Astronomical Observatorytakes us behind the scenes of this new appellation:
It was the astronomer Alain Maury, a great discoverer of asteroids, who on hearing about this tremendous adventure in setting up this observatory, with the telescope which is remotely controllable by all researchers around the world, and who more is located in a small village in the bush, lost 40 km from Majunga, who decided to name one of the asteroids he discovered in this village, “Besely”.
Because scientists and astronomy enthusiasts from all over the world can have remote access to the Besely robotic observatory, after having followed a training course provided by Haikintana Astronomy.
And it is very officially that a few days ago, the International Astronomical Union finally validated the new name of this asteroid. ” This Besely will be observable each year between December and April in the Constellation of Orion. Alas, not with the naked eye, but with a telescope like ours “, Continues Andoniaina Rajaonarivelo.
After the star Rapeto and the planet Trimobe, the asteroid Besely now brings to three the number of celestial objects in our solar system with a Malagasy name.
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