A five-mile-wide rock floating between Mars and Jupiter has a Notre Dame scientist’s name on it.
The International Astronomical Union recently dubbed the rock, Asteroid Rettig in honor of Terry Rettig, associate professor of physics.
The naming came about on the recommendation of the asteroid’s discoverer, Ted Bowell of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Rettig, who specializes in the chemistry of comets, co-authored the book Completing the Inventory of the Solar System that Bowell started.