727 Nipponia
Encyclopedia
727 Nipponia is a minor planet
orbiting the Sun
.
Nipponia was originally discovered by Shin Hirayama
in Tokyo
on March 6, 1900. However, he was not able to determine its orbit. After it was rediscovered by A. Massinger on February 11, 1912, Massinger gave the honor of naming it to Hirayama, who chose the name Nipponia, from a Latinization of Nippon (Japan
in Japanese
).
Minor planet
An asteroid group or minor-planet group is a population of minor planets that have a share broadly similar orbits. Members are generally unrelated to each other, unlike in an asteroid family, which often results from the break-up of a single asteroid...
orbiting the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
.
Nipponia was originally discovered by Shin Hirayama
Shin Hirayama
was the first Japanese astronomer to discover an asteroid. In 1900 he discovered 498 Tokio and 727 Nipponia.The crater Hirayama on the Moon is jointly named after him and Kiyotsugu Hirayama.-References:* at www12.plala.or.jp...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
on March 6, 1900. However, he was not able to determine its orbit. After it was rediscovered by A. Massinger on February 11, 1912, Massinger gave the honor of naming it to Hirayama, who chose the name Nipponia, from a Latinization of Nippon (Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
).