{"id":503929,"date":"2026-06-17T07:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503929\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T07:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T07:27:16","slug":"eternal-star-asteroid-named-after-firefighter-killed-in-hong-kong-blaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/503929\/","title":{"rendered":"Eternal \u2018star\u2019: asteroid named after firefighter killed in Hong Kong blaze"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An asteroid discovered by a Hong Kong-born astronomer has been named after a firefighter who died in the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/hong-kongs-tai-po-fire-tragedy?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">city\u2019s deadliest blaze in decades<\/a>, with his fianc\u00e9e expressing gratitude for a move that turned him into an eternal \u201cstar\u201d.<a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/article\/3334395\/my-superhero-girlfriend-mourns-loss-firefighter-killed-hong-kong-blaze?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ho Wai\u2011ho<\/a>, 37, was killed in the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po last November while helping to evacuate residents.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">To honour his sacrifice, amateur astronomer William Yeung Kwong-yu, a former president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society, has named asteroid 34871 \u201cHowaiho\u201d after him.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Yeung, a Hong Kong\u2011born Canadian, has become one of the world\u2019s most prolific discoverers of asteroids and is credited with finding more than 2,000 minor planets.<\/p>\n<p>Asteroid named after Ho Wai-ho, Hong Kong firefighter who died in Wang Fuk Court blaze<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He discovered the asteroid on October 18, 2001, at his privately built Desert Eagle Observatory in the United States.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The International Astronomical Union\u2019s Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature formally approved the name this month, noting Ho\u2019s courage and dedication in rescue operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An asteroid discovered by a Hong Kong-born astronomer has been named after a firefighter who died in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503930,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4474,30008,215479,154669,215476,240,215478,61,185240,60,179329,88830,215477,82,3630,96598,115,96594,215475],"class_list":["post-503929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-asteroid","tag-astronomer","tag-desert-eagle-observatory","tag-firefighter","tag-ho-wai-ho","tag-hong-kong","tag-hong-kong-astronomical-society","tag-ie","tag-international-astronomical-union","tag-ireland","tag-kiki","tag-minor-planet","tag-nternational-astronomical-union","tag-science","tag-solar-system","tag-tai-po","tag-united-states","tag-wang-fuk-court","tag-william-yeung-kwong-yu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}