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Asteroid Named After Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary has had an asteroid named after him by Czech astronomer Anton Mrkos, who worked with Hillary in Antarctica in 1957-58, the International Geophysical Year.

Hillary is a typical "main belt" minor planet, a few kilometres in diameter. Its average distance from the Sun is 370 million kilometres and it circles the Sun every 3.87 years.

Alan Gilmore, Pam Kilmartin, Mt John Observatory

Alan Gilmore works at the Mt John Observatory in Tekapo
Pam Kilmartin is at Mt John Observatory.