When the first asteroids were discovered, in the early 19th century, most of them were named for female deities. There are not nearly enough female deities to make that feasible in the long term, and these days people who discover asteroids may choose a name from a much broader range of options. Discoverers may name asteroids after people (although not themselves), fictional or mythological characters, or places. Asteroid names feel more personal, and often more contemporary, than the names of, say, lunar craters. This makes them fun to browse.
A newly identified asteroid is labeled with a provisional designation indicating when it was discovered. For example, the asteroid that has a very small chance of hitting Earth in 2032 is called 2024 YR4. When an asteroid’s orbit is confirmed, it’s given a numeric designation indicating its place in the sequence of known asteroids. At this point, it may also be given a name. The first object in the numeric sequence is 1 Ceres, which was discovered in 1801. The sequence currently extends to 756999, which is nameless.
Here are six asteroids that are named for poets.
2999 Dante is named for the medieval Florentine poet Dante Alighieri. His cosmology is very different from ours, and he describes it beautifully in his best-known work, The Divine Comedy. His description of the heavens is clear enough that the poem, in addition to being a literary masterpiece, has provided a guide to 13th-century Western astronomical thought about the structure of the cosmos. The asteroid named for him is one of 55 discovered by Norman G. Thomas at Lowell Observatory between 1964 and 1989.
4110 Keats is named for the English Romantic poet John Keats. He’s known for his tragically brief life, cut short by tuberculosis, but also for the remarkable lyric poetry he was able to write in the time he had. It’s interesting that in “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” Keats compares a meaningful literary experience with the discovery of a new planet. He might have been referring to the discovery of Uranus by William Herschel in 1781 or the discovery of the first two asteroids, Ceres and Pallas, which occurred within his lifetime (or perhaps to all three). The asteroid named for him was discovered by Edward Bowell at Palomar Observatory in 1977.
1875 Neruda is named for the 19th-century Czech poet Jan Neruda, who wrote both prose and poetry. It’s hard for me to say much about his poetry because it appears to be largely untranslated, but if I could read his work, I’d probably start with his third book of poems, Písně Kosmické (Cosmic Songs). The asteroid named for him was discovered by the Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek, who discovered a fair number of comets and asteroids. Those of us who have been around the sun many times might recall Comet Kohoutek of 1974.
When I first learned of this asteroid, I assumed it was named for Pablo Neruda, but no. The Chilean poet was given the name Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto at birth; one story on the origin of his pseudonym is that he chose it in honor of Jan Neruda. (Alternatively, he might have been inspired by the violinist Wilma Neruda.)
9833 Rilke is named for the Austrian poet and novelist Rainer Maria Rilke. In his mystical poetry, Rilke evokes images of nature and explores spiritual themes. His Sonnets to Orpheus are woven around the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. (Orpheus also appears in the sky; he has an asteroid named after him, and that’s his lyre in the constellation Lyra.) The asteroid named for Rilke was discovered in 1982 by Rainer Ziener and Karsten Kirsch at the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory.
43574 Joyharjo Joy Harjo is a Native American writer of essays, poetry, and plays, and also a musician. She was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019 through 2022. In the book Secrets from the Center of the World, a collaboration with photographer and astronomer Stephen Strom, she writes on planetary themes and deep time in light of her heritage as a member of the Muscogee Nation. The asteroid named for her was discovered in 2001 by Marc Buie, who has discovered many asteroids.
56795 Amandagorman Amanda Gorman is a young American poet who also works as an activist and a model. In 2017, Gorman was chosen as the first National Youth Poet Laureate, and in January 2021, she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration. The asteroid named for her was also discovered by Marc Buie, in 2000.
Other poets who have asteroids named for them include Byron, Charles Baudelaire, and Allen Ginsberg. The sky is a friendly place for poets.
