Asteroid Asteroid Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones... s discovered: 1
704 Interamnia 704 Interamnia 704 Interamnia is a very large asteroid, with an estimated diameter of 350 kilometres. Its mean distance from the Sun is 3.067 . It was discovered on October 2, 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli, and named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Cerulli worked...	October 2, 1910

Vincenzo Cerulli (20 April 1859 – 30 May 1927) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

 who owned a private observatory

Collurania-Teramo Observatory

Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania-Teramo "V. Cerulli" is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Italy's Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica . It is located in Teramo, Italy...

 in Teramo

Teramo

Teramo is a city and comune in the central Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo.The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines and the Adriatic coast...

, where he was born.

Cerulli compiled a star catalog with Elia Millosevich

Elia Millosevich

Elia Filippo Francesco Giuseppe Maria Millosevich , was an Italian astronomer.He specialized in calculating the orbits of comets and asteroids, in particular 433 Eros....

. He also observed Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

 and developed the theory that the Martian canals

Martian canals

For a time in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was erroneously believed that there were canals on Mars. These were a network of long straight lines that appeared in drawings of the planet Mars in the equatorial regions from 60° N. to 60° S. Lat., first observed by the Italian astronomer...

 were not real but an optical illusion

Optical illusion

An optical illusion is characterized by visually perceived images that differ from objective reality. The information gathered by the eye is processed in the brain to give a perception that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source...

, a theory that was later confirmed.

He discovered one asteroid

Asteroid

Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

, 704 Interamnia

704 Interamnia

704 Interamnia is a very large asteroid, with an estimated diameter of 350 kilometres. Its mean distance from the Sun is 3.067 . It was discovered on October 2, 1910 by Vincenzo Cerulli, and named after the Latin name for Teramo, Italy, where Cerulli worked...

, which is named after the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 name for Teramo, and is notable for its relatively large diameter of approximately 350 km, which makes it one of the largest bodies in the traditional asteroid belt

Asteroid belt

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets...

.

A crater

Impact crater

In the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...

 on Mars is named after Cerulli, as is the asteroid 366 Vincentina

366 Vincentina

366 Vincentina is a fairly large main belt asteroid.Vincentina was discovered on March 21, 1893 by Auguste Charlois, and named after Vincenzo Cerulli, an Italian astronomer.- References :...

.

Cerulli died at Merate

Merate

Merate is a municipality of 14,872 inhabitants in the province of Lecco, Lombardy .- History :The name Melatum appeared for the first time in the 4th century; it may be derived from the Greek for black/gloomy/dark because of the presence of woods, or from the Italian for apple : an important fruit...

, Province of Lecco

Province of Lecco

The Province of Lecco is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Lecco.On 1 January 2001 the province had a population of 311,452 on a surface of 816 km² divided in 90 communes...

, in 1927.