{"id":663431,"date":"2026-11-01T08:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663431\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T08:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T08:06:11","slug":"rok-solid-recognition-for-slovenian-space-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663431\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rok’ solid recognition for Slovenian space scientist"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a child growing up in Slovenia in 1999, Dr Rok Ne\u017ei\u010d couldn’t have known that an asteroid that was discovered in New Mexico that year would be named after him almost three decades later.<\/p>\n

The Orchard County may be best known for its apples, but for Ne\u017ei\u010d the real attraction was astronomy.<\/p>\n

He first arrived to Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) in 2015 to complete his doctorate in space and climate physics, and has remained there ever since.<\/p>\n

More than a decade on, he is one of two AOP employees to have recently been chosen to have a celestial body named after them.<\/p>\n

Ne\u017ei\u010d, who works at the planetarium as a tours and outreach officer, said he thought it was “so cool” when he learned that asteroids can be named after people.<\/p>\n

Speaking to BBC News NI, Ne\u017ei\u010d said he wished he “could get there some day” and, now that he has, he described it as “a dream come true”.<\/p>\n

“I’m not sure how to believe it myself,” he admitted.<\/p>\n

He explains that an asteroid is “a smallish rock in space” compared to planets, and that his one is named (20560) Ne\u017ei\u010d.<\/a><\/p>\n

“That’s its official name, so the number there tells you basically the order of discovery.”<\/p>\n

It is currently “sitting safely out in the asteroid belt and just going around the Sun, just like we are”, he explained.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

People can visit the planetarium to learn about space [BBC]<\/p>\n

The naming process for small bodies in the solar system is governed by the International Astronomical Union<\/a>. Asteroids can be named by their discoverers once their orbits are sufficiently known.<\/p>\n

Ne\u017ei\u010d’s asteroid is 10.9km across, while that belonging to his colleague Shane Kelly is 15.6km.<\/p>\n

“They’re both actually quite large as far as these asteroids that are named after people tend to be, because most of the really large ones were discovered first,” Ne\u017ei\u010d said.<\/p>\n

“So they were named a long time ago, and now we’re finding smaller and smaller ones.”<\/p>\n

Ne\u017ei\u010d’s asteroid was discovered by “one of the big missions”, he said.<\/p>\n

“This is an Earth-based mission in this case, which is looking for lots of asteroids, essentially, because the more we know about them, the more we know where they’re going, the more we know which ones are not hitting us, including mine and Shane’s.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Campo del Cielo Meteorite on display at the planetarium [BBC]<\/p>\n

To be considered for an asteroid namesake, someone must nominate you, and in Ne\u017ei\u010d’s case, two people put his name forward.<\/p>\n

He doesn’t know who chose him for the honour – but his PhD supervisor, and a former astronomer from the observatory nominated him.<\/p>\n

Ne\u017ei\u010d focused on comets with polarised light for his studies and years later is “still” talking about space.<\/p>\n

The planetarium and observatory is “punching well above our weight”, he said.<\/p>\n

“Even though we’re a small institution, people who work here can just focus on the research so much that we have really top researchers in the field.”<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Shane Kelly has been taking readings at Armagh Observatory for 27 years [BBC]<\/p>\n

The planetarium’s neighbouring observatory has monitored the weather<\/a> for more than than 230 years.<\/p>\n

Shane Kelly, who is the principal meteorological observer at Armagh Observatory, was nominated by the emeritus director.<\/p>\n

Since 1999, his role involves opening what is known as the Stevenson screen which holds sensitive thermometers, before noting down his readings for the day into the handwritten ledger.<\/p>\n

His hand has entered far more lines of data than any of his 17 predecessors and his asteroid is called (7050) Shanekelly.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Armagh Observatory holds weather records dating back to 1795 [BBC]<\/p>\n

Kelly has been “doing this for 27 years”, the institute’s director said.<\/p>\n

“He’s probably observed the weather more than anyone else in the world, I suspect,” Prof Michael Burton said.<\/p>\n

“So this is in recognition of Shane’s contribution to the observatory and to the measuring of the weather.”<\/p>\n

\"Burton<\/p>\n

Prof Michael Burton said it’s “fantastic” that the two men have been chosen [BBC]<\/p>\n

Kelly’s asteroid was discovered in Chile<\/a> in 1982.<\/p>\n

Burton said it’s “fantastic” that the two members of the team have been awarded in this way.<\/p>\n

“There are now 29 asteroids which have some connection with the observatory and planetarium here in Armagh.”<\/p>\n

The AOP now plans on recognising their achievements with a new LED dome, which will show the asteroids and their orbits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a child growing up in Slovenia in 1999, Dr Rok Ne\u017ei\u010d couldn’t have known that an asteroid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,141],"class_list":["post-663431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}