Former student names minor planet after favorite Perry High School physics teacher.

When Nate Van Wey heard that a former student named a minor planet after him, he thought it was a practical joke. Never in this world would he have expected such an honor.



So he looked it up on the International Astronomical Union, and sure enough, it was true. Minor planet 330934 was officially named Natevanwey on Tuesday.



The IAU has a Minor Planet Center, which operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and is funded through a NASA grant.



“There was my name,” said Van Wey. “It caught me off guard.”



The Perry High School physics teacher has been an instructor for 42 years. He also has taught astronomy classes at Perry, at Kent State University at Stark, and at an observatory in West Virginia.



“It’s such a nice honor,” Van Wey said. “It’s one of those things you don’t expect at all to happen. I expect to hear from former students, but this is just above and beyond what you would expect to happen.”



THOUSANDS OF MINOR PLANTS



The minor planet was discovered by Steve Cullen, who graduated from Perry in 1983. Cullen now lives in California where he is the president of a software company. He, technically, is an amateur astronomer, but he sure has a lot of experience with astronomy. He had a company that put telescopes on the Internet for people to rent remotely. He also helped to build observatories in New Mexico and Australia.



Cullen said people love to search the skies all the time. Minor planets are discovered by people around the world every year. Those outside of the astronomy community may be more familiar with minor planets as asteroids. They’re important to look for in case one appears to be making its way toward Earth, Cullen explained.



“This one is in the main belt in a bunch of rocks floating out in space between Mars and Jupiter,” Cullen said in a phone interview from California. “These don’t pose any threat to the earth at all. Some cross the orbit of the earth.



“There are thousands of amateurs that look for minor planets. They want to help and you get a kick out of it. It’s fun to do,” he said. “There’s a real science to it as well to understand the ones that cross Earth’s path and looking at what they’re made of.”



Minor planet Natevanwey joins 18,500 other minor planets that have names dedicated to somebody, Cullen said. More than 393,000 minor planets have numbers, which means they have been discovered. Another 246,000 minor planets have not been numbered, which means they’re still going through the process of being confirmed as minor planets.



‘WHO DESERVES THIS HONOR?’



Naming a minor planet is not as easy as naming a star. Cullen actually discovered this minor planet on his own on Sept. 26, 2009 in Rodeo, New Mexico. Once you think you’ve found a minor planet, you and other astronomers have to find it again — and again.



“You take pictures of the sky and look for anything that moves,” Cullen explained. “You find it one night and within a couple of days go back and reacquire it and find it again and calculate the orbit.”



Cullen said the moving rock has to be viewed four other times. It took five years, he said, for observatories to locate the Natevanwey planet in photographs.



“It’s been viewed by 40 or 50 other observatories in its history,” Cullen explained



Cullen has discovered about a dozen other minor planets but they’re still going through the confirmation process. A self-described “geek” as a kid, Cullen said he’s always had a love of science and technology. He wanted to be an astronaut and launched model rockets.



Van Wey, he said, fueled his passion in the classroom because “his class wasn’t learning, it was fun. It was an experience, it was enjoyable.



“I never really expected to find a minor planet and be able to name it,” said Cullen. “I thought, ‘who would I dedicate this to? Who deserves this honor?’ Mr. Van Wey was one of the few people. The guy’s been a teacher for so long at Perry. He’s touched so many people. I think he’s deserving.”



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