The Institute of Theoretical Astronomy (RAS) named the minor planets Hermitage and Piotrovsky.
The Official Certificate
On 11 April 1997 the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences held the Third International Forum entitled "Greetings, Stars of the Earth". At this forum, certificates were presented attesting to the naming of the small planets Hermitage and Piotrovsky.
At the same time there was arranged an exhibition "Astronomy and Astronautics in Medals", which drew on the holdings of the State Hermitage's Department of Numismatics. At this exhibition there was a display of some 80 medals dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries and relating to the history of astronomy as well as the conquest of space. Among the rarest artifacts were medals honouring Copernicus, Galileo, Descartes, and the Emperor Rudolph II, who was passionately interested in astrology and astronomy at the beginning of the 17th century.
The development of astronomy in Russia was demonstrated by medals commemorating the opening of the Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in 1839 and by several medals from the Russian Astronomical Society. The study and conquest of space in the second half of the 20th century was represented in medals marking the launch of the first artificial satellite of the Earth in 1957, the flight of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, and the flight of the first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963.
At the exhibition it was possible to see pennants of cosmic flights which took place in the 1970s-1990s. The public was especially interested in the gold medals of the Academy of Sciences struck in honour of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Sergei Korolev, as well as the golden Nobel medal from 1958 which was conferred on Academician Pavel Cherenkov for his achievements in the field of cosmic optics. The exhibition also showed medals which were devoted to the first American astronaut John Glenn (1962); to Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon (1969); and to the Soyuz-Apollo space flight.
Information on some small planets
Small planets (asteroids) are bodies of the Solar System having a diameter of between 1 and 1,000 km. The overall mass of all the small planets is less than 1/700 of the mass of the Earth. The orbits of most of them are between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter (the so-called asteroid belt). The best-known of the small planets are Ceres (No. 1), Pallas (No. 2), Juno (No. 3) and Vesta (No. 4).
Hermitage 4758
Discovered on 27 September 1978 by Liudmila Chernykh in the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Named at the suggestion of the International Telegraph Agency, Russian Academy of Sciences; the name was formally approved on 22 February 1997. Average distance from the Sun - 3.208 astronomical units (479.9 million km). Period of complete orbit - 5.745 years. Average diameter - 14 km. Distance from the Earth on 11.04.2007 - 537.9 million km. In the Pisces constellation.
Piotrovsky 4869
Discovered on 26 October 1989 by Liudmila Chernykh in the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory. Named at the suggestion of the International Telegraph Agency, Russian Academy of Sciences and Liudmila Chernykh in honour of Boris and Mikhail Piotrovsky; approved on 22 February 1997. Average distance from the Sun - 2.234 astronomical units (334.3 million km). Period of complete orbit - 3.340 years. Average diameter - 8 km. Distance from the Earth on 11.04.2007 - 411.4 million km. In the Gemini constellation.
