Starry-eyed son names asteroid for mum

AN IRISH amateur astronomer has named an asteroid after his mother who died of cancer almost five years ago.

“(215016) Catherinegriffin” is the first asteroid to be both discovered in Ireland and named after an Irish person for more than 160 years.

Dave Grennan wanted to call the asteroid after his mother’s married name Catherine Grennan, but protocols laid down by the Minor Planet Centre (MPC) based in Harvard preclude discoverers from using any part of their own name.

Mr Grennan, who lives in Raheny, discovered the asteroid in October last year and it was given the designation 2008US3, but he had to wait until the MPC checked that it had not been found by somebody else before it could named.

It was only the second one to be discovered from Ireland since 1848. One found three weeks prior by Kildare-based astronomer Dave McDonald has yet to be named.

Ms Grennan, a mother of two children, died of a rare form of leukaemia on Christmas Eve 2004, aged 65. She was originally from Inchicore.

Mr Grennan said his parents’ decision to buy him a pair of binoculars and a book by Sky at Night presenter Patrick Moore sparked his interest in astronomy.

He also recalled too she had put a blanket around him as a child when he fell asleep outside observing a meteor shower.

“She always encouraged an interest in science. She realised that science is the way to go,” said Mr Grennan.

(215016) Catherinegriffin is between three and five kilometres in size, relatively large for an undiscovered asteroid and orbits about 150 million kilometres from Earth in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Mr Grennan said he hopes to make up a copy of the citation given to him by the MPC and place it on her gravestone as a tribute. “It is a form of immortality. Maybe in thousands of years, we will be mining the asteroid belt and somebody will ask, who was Catherine Griffin?”

There are strict rules in relation to the naming of asteroids. They cannot be named after any political or historical figure until at least 100 years after their death. They cannot be anything disreputable or risqué or more than 16 letters.

Ms Grennan is not the only Irish person to have an asteroid named after them. Lowell Observatory in the United States named (21782) Davemcdonald as a tribute to the Irish astronomer of the same name.

6433 Enya is named after Enya and 5418 Joyce after James Joyce.

There is even an asteroid called (5029) Ireland named after this country by the renowned American astronomer Carolyn S Shoemaker.

There is also a near-Earth asteroid called 3753 Cruithne, called after the ancient peoples who settled in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

It orbits so close to Earth’s orbit that it has been described as Earth’s second moon.