As the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jeronimas Ralys, a professor at Vilnius University (VU), approaches, an asteroid has been officially named in his honor.
According to the university, the asteroid was discovered in 2006 at the Molėtai Astronomical Observatory by scientists Kazimieras Černis and Justas Zdanavičius from the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of the VU Faculty of Physics.
The discovery was scientifically confirmed in 2016, when a dedicated research paper was published in the journal Baltic Astronomy. The asteroid was independently confirmed by U.S. astronomers at the Mt. Bigelow Observatory. In April of the same year, the object received its official designation, while its orbit was finally determined in 2019.
Currently, the asteroid named Ralys is moving through the Scorpius constellation and has an apparent brightness of magnitude 22.3. On average, it orbits the Sun at a distance 2.55 times greater than that of Earth and completes one full revolution in 4 years and 26 days. Astronomers classify this object as part of the Maria asteroid family, a group of rocky asteroids formed after a larger parent body broke apart following a collision with another asteroid.
The Maria asteroid family consists of fragments from this ancient cosmic event, now traveling together through space within the main asteroid belt.
This news article was prepared according to BNS.
