Chinanews, Nanjing, March 14 – The Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) in Nanjing turned down an unidentified Chinese artist's request for buying the naming right of an asteroid recently.

 

The artist offered several million yuan for the right to get a new asteroid named after him/her.

 

However, PMO is not planning to sell naming rights of asteroids. Actually, most known asteroids are named after celebrities (particularly famous scientists), and quite a few others are named after certain places on earth.

 

“The naming of asteroids must be decided by the International Asteroids/Comet Naming Committee, and their naming rights should never be for sale, ”said Yan Jun, the director of PMO. “Besides, there are tacit rules to name them.”