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Antoine and the stars
All this happened on March 2, 1998. I would have liked to begin this story in the
fashion of the fairy-tales too. But in some respects, an email is magic too.
So, this email had been sent to the Paris Observatory
WWW server:
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 10:04:00 +0100 (MET)
I would like to get all informations you have about asteroid B 612.
Many thanks in advance.
Emails like this are very common: some precise
questions,
serious ones, spamming also, and
curious
emails
too.
Before searching the answer to this question in some data base - I mean what
someone more serious than me would have done - I remembered having told
recently about asteroid B 612 to
Leïla
(9 years old). No need
to do some bibliographical researches, one author only wrote about
this asteroid. The bibliographical reference (not that bad, compared
to some scientific articles):
- Saint-Exupéry, A. de, 1946, Le Petit Prince,
Gallimard ed.
Everybody knows this story:
"This asteroid has only once been seen through the telescope. That was
by a Turkish astronomer, in 1909.
On making his discovery, the astronomer had presented it to the
International Astronomical Congress, in a great demonstration. But he
was in Turkish costume, and so nobody would believe what he said.
Grown-ups are like that...
Fortunately, however, for the reputation of Asteroid B-612, a Turkish
dictator made a law that his subjects, under pain of death, should
change to European costume. So in 1920 the astronomer gave his
demonstration all over again, dressed with impressive style and
elegance. And this time everybody accepted his report."
Antoine exagerates, of course; however, I know someone who was not
dressed in Turkish costume, and who had an analogous problem...
When I told this story to another astronomer, he asked me seriously:
"does this asteroid really exists?". What a strange question!
The answer has already been given long ago by Antoine:
"Just so, you might say to them: "The proof that the little prince
existed is that he was charming, that he laughed, and that he was
looking for a sheep. If anybody wants a sheep, that is a proof that he
exists." And what good would it do to tell them that? They would
shrug their shoulders, and treat you like a child. But if you said to
them:
"The planet he came from is Asteroid B-612," then they would be
convinced, and leave you in peace from their questions."
This is however more complicated with astronomers. Concerning the naming
conventions of asteroids, they will refer to Commission 5 of the
International Astronomical Union. They know for sure that no asteroid
has such a name. There is an asteroid named (612) Veronika, but it was
discovered on october 8, 1909, by Kopff in Heidelberg. From
Saint-Exupéry (1946) however, the asteroid B 612 should be present
above the desert one year later. Thus the period would not fit, and
after all
Heidelberg is not that desert, and Kopff is not a turkish name...
In order to be sure, one could request observing time on a telescope,
but I have good reasons to believe that it would not be attributed...
We must forgive astronomers, they are grown-ups.
However they do their best to remember the secret of the fox:
What
is essential is invisible to the eye.... So that they observe
stars in the infrared, the UV, the radio or X band...
I am not sure this is because of the fox.
What I believe however is that,
among those who remember having been a child,
some astronomers ask themselves,
while looking up at the sky, the question of so much
importance: "Has the sheep
eaten the flower, yes or no ?"
This story occurred long ago... I realized later that the astronomers
had finally given reason to Antoine 4 years later (in 2002), coining the
name Bésixdouze (B-six-twelve) for the asteroid 46610
(1993 TQ1) !!!
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