Planet Named

Minor Planet No. 456677 was named after Chinese aerospace scientist Ye Peijian at a ceremony on May 8.

Ye is active in the country’s lunar probe and deep space missions, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The minor planet was discovered by a Chinese team from the Purple Mountain Observatory in east China’s Nanjing on September 11, 2007.

The naming suggestion was approved by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center on January 12 this year.