<http://www.sofcom.com.au/cgi-bin/news/getAAPPreview?keyword=spacepeople> Sci-fi writer Douglas Adams immortalised in space (16/05/2001 06:38:01) In a coincidence that could have been taken straight from one of his quirky novels, on the day writer Douglas Adams died, an international space agency named an asteroid Arthurdent, from a character from his best-known work, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The Minor Planet Center, a branch of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), made the announcement on Friday in an e-mail circular, the same day the British author died, a spokesman for the Center, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told AFP by phone Tuesday. Adams, who died aged just 49, had a worldwide following for his wry, inventive style, which poked gentle fun at human self-importance as well as science fiction itself. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was spawned as a BBC radio play in 1978 and blossomed into a TV show, a novel and sequels, as well as plans to turn the tale into a Hollywood movie. Arthur Dent, one of its central characters, is a mild-mannered Englishman who is rescued from Earth seconds before it is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass. The asteroid's name was proposed by Felix Hormuth, an astronomer at Germany's Starkenburg Observatory, which spotted the space rock on February 7, 1998, the specialist website space.com said. The Minor Planet Center announcement reads: "The Earthling Arthur Dent is confronted with the adversities of life, the universe and everything in a highly amusing and entertaining way in Douglas Adams' famous five-volume trilogy The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy." One of the Center's roles is to assign names to new asteroids, comets and other orbiting rocks. Adams died in Santa Barbara, California, following a heart attack. Copyright � Software Communication Group FYI, here are links to the new alphabetical list of named minor planets released on Friday <http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/ps/lists/MPNames.html> and a list of the discovery circumstances for numbered minor planets (18501)-(19000) <http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/NumberedMPs18501.html>, the two documents released on Friday in which the name Arthurdent was given to asteroid (18610), formerly provisionally designated 1998 CC2. There is no information given on whether or not asteroid (18610) is "mostly harmless," though FWIW it is not on the most recent list of "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids," released that same day as MPEC 2001-J23 (<http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K01/K01J23.html>). -- Ronn! :)
