96189 Pygmalion
Encyclopedia
96189 Pygmalion is an Amor-type
near-Earth
minor planet
. It was discovered by Henri Debehogne
at the La Silla Observatory
in Chile on July 6, 1991. It is named after Pygmalion
, a Greek mythological character who fell in love with a statue of his own creation.
Amor asteroid
The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the asteroid 1221 Amor. They approach the orbit of the Earth from beyond, but do not cross it. Most Amors do cross the orbit of Mars...
near-Earth
Near-Earth object
A near-Earth object is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into close proximity with the Earth. All NEOs have a perihelion distance less than 1.3 AU. They include a few thousand near-Earth asteroids , near-Earth comets, a number of solar-orbiting spacecraft, and meteoroids large enough to...
minor planet
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...
. It was discovered by Henri Debehogne
Henri Debehogne
Henri Debehogne was a Belgian astronomer.He worked at the Observatoire Royal de Belgique in Uccle, and specialized in astrometry of comets and asteroids....
at the La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory
La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory organisation, and several others are partly maintained by ESO...
in Chile on July 6, 1991. It is named after Pygmalion
Pygmalion (mythology)
Pygmalion is a legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most familiar from Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.-In Ovid:In Ovid's narrative, Pygmalion was a...
, a Greek mythological character who fell in love with a statue of his own creation.