An asteroid will bear the name of a researcher from the Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved the designation of asteroid (20747) Tanialepivert in honor of postdoctoral researcher Tania Le Pivert Jolivet from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) for her contributions to the study of primitive asteroids.

The announcement was made during the international conference Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (ACM 2026), held from July 6 to 10 in Poznań (Poland), the IAC reported this Tuesday.

The asteroid was discovered on January 8, 2000 by the LINEAR project (Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research), from the Lincoln Laboratory in Socorro, New Mexico (United States).

The designation recognizes Le Pivert Jolivet's scientific contributions to the study of the composition of primitive asteroids, a line of research aimed at deepening the knowledge about the origin and evolution of the Solar System.

The researcher carries out her work at the IAC analyzing the composition of these small bodies using visible and infrared spectra obtained with ground-based and space telescopes, as well as through laboratory analysis of asteroid samples brought to Earth by space missions.

"It is a great honor to receive this recognition at the ACM gala dinner. In an academic environment full of pressure and doubts, it is truly gratifying for the scientific community to recognize you. This is a source of motivation to continue researching," Le Pivert Jolivet stated.

With this designation, she becomes the fifth researcher linked to the IAC to give her name to an asteroid, after Julia de León, Javier A. Licandro, Miquel Serra-Ricart, and Eri Tatsumi.

The approval is included in the July 9, 2026 bulletin of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN), which gave the green light to the designation of 208 new minor planets.