Discovery and Naming
The asteroid was discovered in 1998 by the LINEAR project and was given the provisional designation 1998 SF36. In August 2003, it was officially named after Hideo Itokawa, a Japanese rocket scientist.
Read more about this topic: 25143 Itokawa
Famous quotes containing the words discovery and/or naming:
“He is not a true man of science who does not bring some sympathy to his studies, and expect to learn something by behavior as well as by application. It is childish to rest in the discovery of mere coincidences, or of partial and extraneous laws. The study of geometry is a petty and idle exercise of the mind, if it is applied to no larger system than the starry one.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
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—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)