Discovered in 1916 by astronomer Grigori Nikolaevich Neujmin, one in a catalogue to his credit of 
hundreds of minor planets and comets, and named for the Crimean spa town near Yalta that was favoured by Neujmin’s contemporaries like Tolstoy and Gorky, the asteroid was visited by the Galileo space probe on a close fly-by on this day in 1991 en route for its mission to explore the Jovian system (see also), the first time such an object was encountered at close range and studied, the rendezvous a technically challenging one since only its approximate location was known by projecting its orbital path. The irregular shaped silicate-rich asteroid is approximately the size of Guam and has the pictured astronomical symbol, a simplification of the resort town’s coat of arms.
synchronoptica
one year ago: a mascot for the Vatican (with synchronopticรฆ) plus IKEA acknowledges forced labour in East Germany
thirteen years ago: media ownership under threat
