A 19-year-old University of Georgia student, Clayton Chilcutt, has made a “small contribution to science” by winning a contest to name an asteroid orbiting Earth. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) held the contest in collaboration with Radiolab and received over 2,700 entries from more than 100 countries. Chilcutt’s suggestion of Cardea, the Roman goddess of door hinges, was chosen as the winner. The asteroid, discovered by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project, is about 500 feet wide.
The contest aimed to name a quasi-moon or an asteroid with an orbit matching that of a planet. A panel of experts, including Bill Nye and Penn Badgley, narrowed down the list of seven finalists to Chilcutt’s Cardea. The IAU’s Kelly Blumenthal said that while Cardea won, other finalist names will be suggested for future space objects. Chilcutt, an accounting and finance major, chose the name after discovering it in the contest description, feeling it “just sounds celestial”. The asteroid is expected to remain in Earth’s vicinity for another six centuries.
Source: https://www.newser.com/story/362447/college-student-gives-fitting-name-to-our-quasi-moon.html