On this day in 1994 The International Astronomical Union named an asteroid after the much missed Frank Zappa who had died in December the previous year.

The Scientific Stuff,

Beyond Mars but before you get to Jupiter there should be another planet, but there isn’t. What there is a a pile of debris. Some of this debris is small and some the size of small planets. These are called asteroids and there are some 7,000 of them. The biggest is called Ceres and it is over 900 km in diameter. There are loads of them, loads.

Czech astronomer L Brozek discover asteroid number 3834 in 1980 and is classified as a minor planet. All respect to Zappa fan John Scialli who embarked a on a quest to have an asteroid named after Frank. He found a supporter in the IAU and 3834 became Zappafrank.

(You can have a star named after yourself, of course, but that has no official standing. Essentially you would be buying the right to call a star after you from someone with no rights to name stars). The naming of asteroids by the IAU is real.

If want more Zappa (and who doesn’t) look no further than my store!