7796 Járacimrman
Encyclopedia
7796 JáraCimrman (ˈjaːratsɪmr̩man; sometimes spelt JaraCimrman) is an asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 orbiting in the main belt
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

 of asteroids between Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

 and Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

. It belongs to the IIa family of asteroids. It cannot approach the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

 nearer than 197 million km.

The discovery

The asteroid was discovered on the Kleť Observatory
Klet Observatory
Kleť Observatory is an astronomical observatory in the Czech Republic. It is situated in South Bohemia, south of the summit of Mount Kleť, near the town of České Budějovice...

 (Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

) on 16 January 1996 by Zdeněk Moravec
Zdenek Moravec
Zdeněk Moravec is a Czech astronomer.He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids.-References:...

 and was designated 1996 BG. It was observed until April 1996 and then in June and July 1997. It was discovered to be a lost asteroid which had previously been observed twice: at the Brera-Merate Observatory
Brera Astronomical Observatory
The Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera is an astronomical observatory. Built in the historic palace of Brera in Milan, Italy in 1764 by Jesuits, the observatory passed in to the hands of the government in 1773 and has passed from government to government control ever since....

 in northern Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 on 12 December 1973 and at Mount Stromlo Observatory
Mount Stromlo Observatory
Mount Stromlo Observatory located just outside of Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University .-History:...

 (near Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

) on 8 and 9 July 1990.

In 1997 its orbit
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

 was determined more precisely by a number of other observatories and thus it could be numbered as asteroid 7796. It became the 312th numbered asteroid discovered at the Kleť Observatory, and Moravec suggested to name it after the fictional Czech genius Jára Cimrman
Jára Cimrman
Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman is a Czech fictional character created by Jiří Šebánek, Ladislav Smoljak and Zdeněk Svěrák. He is presented as one of the greatest Czech playwrights, poets, composers, teachers, travellers, philosophers, inventors, detectives, mathematicians and sportsmen of the...

.

The citation accompanying the suggestion said: "Named for Jára Cimrman, a fictitious Czech genius. An analogue to Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...

, he was a playwright, composer, poet, painter, versatile scientist, inventor, polar explorer, sportsman, first man on the moon, etc. Although his name is not mentioned in any encyclopedia, his work is explored at the Jára Cimrman Theatre in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. This theatre is headed by the famous cimrmanologists Z. Svěrák
Zdenek Sverák
Zdeněk Svěrák is a Czech actor, humorist and scriptwriter. He is one of the most popular Czech cultural personalities. In 1989, he was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival....

 and L. Smoljak
Ladislav Smoljak
Ladislav Smoljak was a Czech film and theater director, actor and screenwriter. He was born in Prague.Smoljak tried to study at an art academy but failed the admission process. He went on to study physics and mathematics, and later worked as journalist and scriptwriter...

, who endorsed the name proposal."

The IAU
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...

 Committee on Small Body Nomenclature approved this name in 1998.

Physical characteristics

On the basis of its absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude
Absolute magnitude is the measure of a celestial object's intrinsic brightness. it is also the apparent magnitude a star would have if it were 32.6 light years away from Earth...

 in the visible light spectrum and albedo
Albedo
Albedo , or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it...

 the diameter
Diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints are on the circle. The diameters are the longest chords of the circle...

 of the asteroid 7796 Járacimrman can be estimated: 12.54 km. Since astronomers do not have the spectral data on the asteroid, neither its chemical nor mineralogical composition is known.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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