A planet will be named after St Petersburg University
A minor planet № 549706 in the asteroid belt will be named Spbuni. This decision was made by the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
The assignment of the name of SPbU to a heavenly body is one of the events scheduled by the Organising Committee for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of SPbU in 2024.
With assistance of the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences a minor planet was found in the asteroid belt, and St Petersburg University was proposed to name it.
Options for naming the planet were discussed at the meeting of the St Petersburg University Collegium of Honorary Professors. Following discussions, the Collegium of Honorary Professors proposed two names: "Alma Mater 1724" and "Petrocollegium". The final decision was made taking opinion of students and employees of SPbU into account, everyone could choose one of this two names or make their own suggestions.
The Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences has announced that the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature of IAU approved the name Spbuni for the minor planet № 549706 discovered by astronomers Timur Kryachko and Boris Satovsky on September 21, 2011. Astronomers proposed another spelling of the name—SPBUni, but in accordance with rules and conventions of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) the Working Group converted every capital letter (except the first one) into the lowercase.
Information about assigning of the name to the minor planet is published in the following bulletin by IAU's Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature.
More information:
www.wgsbn-iau.org/files/Bullet … SBNBull_V002_011.pdf
Provided by St. Petersburg State University