Why was the asteroid discovered on November 1, 1977? named after the centaur Chiron.
Chiron floats in the vastness of space in this illustration, surrounded by a wispy atmosphere that’s fed by the jets of gas and dust emerging from the object’s interior.
astronomy.com
November 1, 1977 at 09:55 Palomar Observatory, Charles Koval discovered the asteroid Chiron.Later, earlier photographs were found in astronomical observatories in different countries. But nevertheless, before Ch. Koval, no one recognized on them at that time an undiscovered asteroid.
And now the question arose before scientists - Chiron turned out to be too large to be an asteroid, and too small to be attributed to the planets. And the ego's eccentric 'behavior' made the task even more difficult.
Later, a gas and dust coma was noticed in Chiron (which changes length and brightness over time), which is similar to a comet, but according to its characteristics, it again did not fall under this classification.
Therefore, a new term "planetoid" was introduced, which means - similar to a planet. (In astrology, Chiron is called an asteroid, and the term planetoid is practically not found on other Internet resources)
Not ordinary and not getting an asteroid under the classifications known before him served as the factor that determined his name.
The centaur Chiron looks just as ambivalent as the asteroid, combining half of the human and horse bodies.
After the discovery of Chiron, scientists decided that if other celestial bodies similar to Chiron were discovered in this area, they would be assigned to the centaurs group.and will bear the names of centaurs from other Greek mythology.
Later the asteroids Foul And Ness were discovered.
