Okay, this is a fun one; some old friends/colleagues from the University of Hawaii let me know yesterday that I’ve had an asteroid officially named after me! This is a lovely honor and one officially recognized by the IAU.

723217 Levesque (2006 RY111) is a main-belt asteroid first discovered on September 14, 2006 by Joe Masiero and Rob Jedicke (so, discovered right when I was starting grad school, by one of my future housemates and one of my professors). It hangs out about ~2.6 AU from the Sun (roughly in the middle of the asteroid belt) and orbits the Sun once every ~4.6 years.

You can find more about “my” asteroid here, and check out the IAU Bulletin where the name became official. Pretty cool! 😀