Leonard Nimoy (Photo : Reuters)
The late Leonard Nimoy, best remembered for his role as the half Vulcan-half human Mr. Spock in "Star Trek" has been honored with an asteroid named after him, Asteroid 4864 Nimoy.
On June 2, The Minor Planet Center named the Asteroid 4864 after the late American actor, film director and poet in February at the age of 83. The announcement posted on Flickr read, “Best known for his portrayal of the half-Vulcan/half-human science officer Spock in the original “Star Trek” TV series and subsequent movies, Nimoy wrote two autobiographies: I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock (1995).”
This is one among the several tributes to the "Star Trek" actor including a statue created in the Star Trek MMORPG.
The asteroid 4864 Nimoy is a mountain-sized rock roughly 10 km across in almost the same plane as Earth, located between Mars and Jupiter. At such a location, there's chance that the asteroid contains ice. It makes a slightly elliptical orbit around the Sun once every 3.9 years.
"Come mid-July, amateurs with 14-inch or larger telescopes might glimpse it [asteroid 4864 Nimoy] when it brightens to magnitude 15," according to Universe Today, adding that this month, it will slowly track from Capricornus into Sagittarius with very minimal chances of getting any brighter than 16th magnitude.
The Asteroid 4864 Nimoy was first discovered on Sept. 2, 1988 by Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne and was designated as 1988 RA5 at the European Southern Observatory.
Mr. Spock, the fictional character played by Nimoy, is said to have reached the asteroid belt before him with the asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock (former 1971 QX1). The asteroid about 21 km across with an orbit duration of 5.23 years was discovered on Aug. 16, 1971 by James Gibson. However, it was not named after Nimoy’s character as Gibson has actually named it after his pet.
