{"id":121293,"date":"2021-06-30T09:29:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T13:29:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//?p=121293"},"modified":"2024-02-09T11:54:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:54:03","slug":"12-ucf-researchers-honored-with-asteroids-named-after-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//12-ucf-researchers-honored-with-asteroids-named-after-them/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293//","title":{"rendered":"12 UCF Researchers Honored with Asteroids Named After Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
A dozen University of Central Florida space researchers were honored recently when planetary bodies were named after them./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n This brings the total number of current UCF researchers whose names are attached to asteroids to 17, along with another 13 former researchers./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n The honor comes just in time for today/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2019s International Asteroid Day, which was started in 2015 to raise awareness about asteroids. The small planetary bodies could offer untold riches in rare and precious metals if mined, but they could also be catastrophic if a large one was to hit Earth./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n The announcement of the new names was made recently by the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature. The names are in recognition of the researchers/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2019 impact on space science and are a distinction for UCF space research./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u201cThere were more than one hundred asteroids named by the IAU working group this month, and researchers associated with UCF and Arecibo received nearly a tenth of them,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u201d says Noem/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u00ed Pinilla-Alonso, an associate scientist at UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2019s Florida Space Institute and an expert astronomer who had an asteroid named for her in 2017. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u201cThese awards are to individuals based on research excellence. It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2019s clear that the planetary group at UCF is getting stronger and that the quality of these researchers at UCF is being noticed by our colleagues at other institutions./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n Two of the new recipients /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2014 Estela Fern/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u00e1ndez-Valenzuela and M/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u00e1rio De Pr/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u00e1 /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/u2014 are preeminent postdoctoral scholars at the institute./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/121293/n