The first asteroid was discovered by Piazi in Sicily in 180 1 and he named it Ferdinand. The former part is named after the god of the valley of protection in Sicily, and the latter part is named after King ferdinand iv of Naples. However, international scholars are not satisfied with this, so the second part is removed. Therefore, the official name of the first asteroid is asteroid 1 ceres.

According to this tradition, asteroids discovered later were all named after Roman or Greek gods, such as Pallas Athena, Vesta and Venus. But as more and more asteroids were discovered, the names of classical gods were finally used up. So later asteroids were named after the discoverer's wife, historical figures or other important figures, cities, fairy tales or other mythical gods.

For example, asteroid 2 16 is named after Cleopatra, asteroid 7 19 is named after Albert Einstein, asteroid 17744 is named after actress Jodie Foster, asteroid 1773 is named after a dwarf in Grimm's fairy tale, and so on.

As of March 6, 2007, there are 679,373 asteroids whose orbits (temporary numbers) have been calculated, 150 and 106 asteroids with permanent numbers (inquired), and 12 asteroids with names.

List of people named by asteroids:

The first asteroid discovered in China: 139 jiuhuaxing (discovered by j.c. Watson).

The first asteroid discovered by China: 1 125/3789 China (discovered by Yuzhe Zhang, 1 125 was changed to 3789).

The first asteroid named after China: 1802 Zhang Heng (discoverer: Purple Mountain Observatory).

The first asteroid named after the place name of China: 2045 Beiping (discoverer: Purple Mountain Observatory).

The first asteroid named after China County: 36 1 1 Tai Po (discovered by Purple Mountain Observatory).

The first asteroid named after Taiwan Province people: 2240 Cai (discovered by Harvard Observatory).

The first asteroid named after China spacecraft: Shenzhou 8256 (discovered by Purple Mountain Observatory).

Refer to the above? Baidu encyclopedia-named asteroid