was the first Japanese

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

to discover an asteroid. In 1900 he discovered

498 Tokio Tokio ( minor planet designation: 498 Tokio) (1902 KU) is a main-belt asteroid discovered on 2 December 1902 by Auguste Charlois Auguste Honoré Charlois (November 26, 1864 – March 26, 1910) was a French astronomer who discovered 99 astero ...

and

727 Nipponia 727 Nipponia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It is a member of the Maria family of asteroids. ''Nipponia'' was originally discovered by Shin Hirayama in Tokyo on March 6, 1900. However, he was not able to determine its orbit. After it was ...

. The crater Hirayama on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

is jointly named after him and

Kiyotsugu Hirayama was a Japanese astronomer, best known for his discovery that many asteroid orbits were more similar to one another than chance would allow, leading to the concept of asteroid families, now called " Hirayama families" in his honour. Biography ...

References

External links

月の命名は？
at www12.plala.or.jp (in Japanese) 1868 births 1945 deaths 19th-century Japanese astronomers University of Tokyo faculty University of Tokyo alumni 20th-century Japanese astronomers {{japan-astronomer-stub