1421 Esperanto
Encyclopedia
1421 Esperanto is a main belt asteroid
Asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

 discovered on March 18, 1936 by the Finnish astronomer Yrjö Väisälä
Yrjö Väisälä
Yrjö Väisälä was a Finnish astronomer and physicist.His main contributions were in the field of optics, but he was also very active in geodetics, astronomy and optical metrology...

 at Iso-Heikkilä Observatory
Iso-Heikkilä Observatory
Iso-Heikkilä Observatory is an amateur astronomical observatory in the Iso-Heikkilä district of Turku, Finland. It was operated by the University of Turku from 1937 to 1972 but is now used by a local division of Ursa Astronomical Association.-History:...

 in Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

. It measures 43.31km in diameter.

Väisälä named the asteroid after the constructed language
Constructed language
A planned or constructed language—known colloquially as a conlang—is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary has been consciously devised by an individual or group, instead of having evolved naturally...

 Esperanto
Esperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...

. He also named another asteroid, 1462 Zamenhof
1462 Zamenhof
Zamenhof is a main belt asteroid, which was discovered by the Finnish astronomer and physicist Yrjö Väisälä on February 6, 1938. It has a diameter of 25.82 km and geometric albedo of 0.1268....

, after Esperanto's creator, L. L. Zamenhof
L. L. Zamenhof
Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof December 15, 1859 – April 14, 1917) was the inventor of Esperanto, the most successful constructed language designed for international communication.-Cultural background:...

.

External links

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