57901 Hitchens
57901 Hitchens (provisional designation: 2002 CH275) is an asteroid in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was discovered on 2 February, 2009, by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search at the Anderson Mesa Station. It is named after the British-American essayist Christopher Hitchens.
The asteroid was named shortly before Hitchens' death in 2011. Hitchens was aware of and proud of the designation. Writing in the February 2012 edition of Vanity Fair, author Salman Rushdie related the story:
Richard Dawkins wrote to Christopher ten days before he died, telling him that an asteroid had been named after him. Christopher was greatly delighted and told all his friends about the Asteroid Hitchens. “Finally!” he emailed us. “Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!” I replied, paraphrasing the last line of Lewis Carroll’s verse. “Bravo! You’re a tea-tray in the sky!” It was our last exchange.[1]
References
- ^ Salman Rushdie (2012-12). "Christopher Hitchens (Vanity Fair, Feb 2012)".
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