November 2, 2001 – An international group responsible for cataloguing space rocks has named three asteroids to honor victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center's Twin Towers and damaged the Pentagon. The names were chosen "to represent some of the most basic and universal human values," officials said.

The names are Compassion, Solidarity and Magnanimity.

The decision to name the asteroids was made unilaterally in a unanimous agreement among the 13 members of the International Astronomical Union's Committee for Small Body Nomenclature.

"The sentiments reflect the feelings of all the members of the committee, representing many different countries," said Brian Marsden, an asteroid researcher and secretary for the group. The action taken by the committee is unprecedented.

The three asteroids were each discovered by observatories on different continents and "are intended as a positive statement abhorring the tragedy that occurred on a fourth," according to a monthly newsletter from the IAU.

Details of the newly named asteroids:

Compassion, also known as asteroid 1980 DN, was discovered Feb. 19, 1980 at the Klet Observatory. It was named "to honor the compassion of people around the world for the friends and families of the victims of disasters, exemplified by the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 2001 Sept. 11, with the hope that they will overcome their sorrow."

Solidarity, also known as asteroid 1980 PV1, was discovered on Aug. 6, 1980 at the European Southern Observatory. It was named to honor the solidarity of people around the world with both victims and survivors of terrorist attacks like those on New York and Washington on 2001 Sept. 11, in the goal of eliminating terrorism from the world."

Magnanimity, also known as asteroid 1980 TE7, was discovered on Oct. 14, 1980 at the Purple Mountain Observatory. It was named "to honor the magnanimity of people around the world in dealing with terrorist attacks like those on New York and Washington on 2001 Sept. 11, in the hope that terrorism will be countered with justice for all, not with revenge." Magnanimity means generosity and forgiveness.

The 13 members of the naming committee are volunteers from the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, Japan, Norway, the Czech Republic, Uruguay and New Zealand.

In a telephone interview, Marsden said the group took great care to find three asteroids that had been discovered and numbered consecutively and that were found by researchers outside the United States.

Committee member Richard West of the European Southern Observatory proposed the idea on Sept. 14, just three days after the attacks. West also proposed the names, which the committee agreed to. The accompanying defenses for the names, citations that are required to get an asteroid named, were written originally by West and edited by the committee, Marsden said.

West is also a discoverer of the asteroid now called Solidarity. Marsden said an effort was made to choose asteroids that had been discovered by members of the naming committee in order to simplify matters: Astronomers commonly suggest names for asteroids they have found.

The names became official on Oct. 2 but were made known widely only when posted Oct. 9 on the Minor Planet Mailing List, an electronic newsletter that serves the science community.

Benny Peiser, a scientist at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, called the move a very symbolic sign of both the humanism and internationalism of his community of asteroid researchers.

"I think this is a very timely and appropriate action," Peiser said. "Any other suggestion might turn out not to be workable and would have taken much longer to implement."

Peiser referred, in part, to suggestions by some amateur and professional astronomers to name an asteroid for each of the roughly 5,000 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The IAU deemed that idea impractical.

For one thing, it would put a tremendous burden on the 13 volunteers who make up the judging committee and would have to study each application, Marsden said. They typically name just 100 asteroids a month.

Second, he said uncertainties on the list would make it very difficult to be sure each victim in fact was properly awarded an asteroid and that no asteroids were mistakenly named after terrorists or others who were possibly missing but not dead. Officials involved in counting victims have said the list is not entirely accurate, and it has changed frequently as more information is gathered.

As of late September there were 29,074 known "minor planets," mostly asteroids and a handful of comets and other objects. Of those, only 8,830 were named.