Double yoi!! Asteroid named for Myron Cope

[VaBchSteelersfan]

An asteroid that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter officially has been named 7835 Myroncope in honor of legendary Steelers broadcaster Myron Cope, who died Feb. 27.

The name, proposed in March by Dr. Eric Mamajek of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., became official late last month after approval by the International Astronomical Union. The IAU is a body of astronomers charged with, among other things, naming celestial bodies.

"He was such an interesting character; I just thought it would be wonderful if he were memorialized in this way," Dr. Mamajek, a native of Bethel Park, said of Mr. Cope. "He was just sort of the quintessential Pittsburgher."

Minor planet 7835 Myroncope is small, probably about 3 miles wide. It's also quite distant, coming only as close as 88 million miles from Earth. Its elliptical orbit can take it as far as 387 million miles away. The small size and distance means the asteroid cannot be seen by the naked eye.