A happy Friday to all readers, and a happy “ending” to the Koisuru Asteroido (“Asteroid in Love”, or Koi As for short) anime series (koiastv.com). I wrote about this earlier in the Summer, as part of the COIAS program (or, Come On! Impacting ASteroids).
The latest edition of the WGSBN is out this week. In it, the asteroid- formerly known by its provisional designation 2017 BX232, has now received its official number and name. The small body is now- officially!- (697402) Ao.
If you don’t get the connection: a main character in the anime, schoolgirl Ao Manaka, is in the school science club, and would love to someday name an asteroid Ao. The COIAS program, for amateur contributions by photo-recognition (finding asteroids caught by chance on camera), is named- if you’ll excuse the pun- after the anime show; I’m guessing it was more than a coincidence. (Or pun.) The point of COIAS is to discover new asteroids, and hence, get discovery credit (even if shared), and thence naming rights.
So congratulations, Ao-chan, you’ve got your asteroid!