

Celebrity culture has permeated even the loftiest heights of academia: when biologists or astronomers discover something new, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and the Minor Planet Center lets them name it as they please. Asteroid 8353 Mega Ryan, for instance, (above) was named in 1989 by the European Southern Observatory.

Can we request that the next potentially Earth-destroying asteroid found be named TOWIE?

Mick Jagger
Aegrotocatellus jaggeri
A trilobite species
(Adrain and Edgecombe, 1995)

Scaptia (Plinthina) beyonceae
A horse fly
(Bryan Lessard, CSIRO, 2012)

Barack Obama
Caloplaca obamae
An orange lichen
(Kerry Knudsen, Santa Rosa Island, California, 2007)

Meg Ryan
8353 megryan
An asteroid
(EW Elst, European Southern Observatory, 1989)

Angelina Jolie
Aptostichus angelinajolieae
A trapdoor spider
(Amy Stockman, Jason Bond, 2008)


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