21540 Itthipanyanan, also designated Asteroid 1998QE11, is a main belt

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...

 asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 originally discovered August 17, 1998 by the Lincoln Laboratory

Lincoln Laboratory

MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and development activities focus on long-term technology development as well as...

 Near-Earth Asteroid Research Team at Socorro, New Mexico

Socorro, New Mexico

Socorro is a city in Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It stands in the Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . The population was 9,051 at the 2010 census...

. 21540 Itthipanyanan can be found in the asteroid belt located around the elliptical course of Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

 and just inside of Jupiter

Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...

.

Name

The asteroid is named for Thai

Thai people

The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...

 student Suksun Itthipanyanan due to his second place finish at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair is the largest pre-college scientific research event in the world, and is owned and administered by the Society for Science & the Public a 501 non-profit organization based in Washington, DC...

 with his experiment on the 'Dehiscene and dispersion of the Popping pod Ruellia tuberosa

Ruellia tuberosa

Ruellia tuberosa, also known as Minnie Root, Fever Root, Snapdragon Root and Sheep Potato , is a species of flowering plant in the Acanthaceae family...

 L.' His second place finish allowed his group to be recognized by Intel ISEF for an outstanding interdisciplinary science project, winning the naming rights for the asteroid.

See also

List of asteroids/21501–21600

List of named asteroids (F-K)

Meanings of asteroid names (21001-22000)

Meanings of asteroid names (21001-22000)

Minor planets not yet given a name have not been included in this list....