Whoa. There’s an asteroid named after me!
Amazing xkcd readers Lewis Hulbert and Jordan Zhu noticed that the International Astronomical Union—the organization in charge of official astronomical naming—was taking suggestions for what to name small Solar System objects. They submitted my name for asteroid (4942) 1987 DU6, and it was subsequently renamed 4942 Munroe.
I’m really touched. I spent all weekend telling everyone who wanted to listen (and probably some who didn’t) about the asteroid.
The first thing I did was try to figure out whether 4942 Munroe was big enough to pose a threat to Earth. I was excited to learn that, based on its albedo (brightness), it’s probably about 6-10 kilometers in diameter. That’s comparable in size to the one that killed the dinosaurs—definitely big enough to cause a mass extinction!
Unfortunately Fortunately, it’s in a fairly stable circular orbit between Mars and Jupiter, so it’s unlikely to hit the Earth any time soon.
4942 Munroe (!!!) is large enough that it would have noticeable gravity, although not much. If you were walking on the surface and you tripped and fell, it’d take you a minute to hit the ground. You could get into orbit around it by traveling at jogging speed, and might even escape its gravity entirely with a good jump.
Thank you so much. This is the coolest thing.
xkcd 
Congratulations, Randall! It’s nice to be respected enough by members of technology and science communities that people want to do this for you. You should make it a life goal to travel there and visit! Maybe Richard Branson is a fan, too!
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Well, I’m officially jealous
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Congratulations. Such a cool thing these guys did for such a cool guy.
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I only just realised I missed an ‘of’ in my description and it wasn’t edited before going into the database. And now it looks like my mistake will be forever associated with 4942 Munroe.
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Let’s mine it and then turn it into the first generation ship. Someone call Elon Musk!
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“Fortunately, it’s in a fairly stable circular orbit between Mars and Jupiter, so it’s unlikely to hit the Earth any time soon.”
How about any time in the next 11,000 years?
(ask the hopeful people from the Time thread)
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Congratulations Randall! Let’s hit Mars!
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Congrats!
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Congratulations! This is so cool!
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Congratulations, Randall!
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I bet it doesn’t have good wifi.
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Well now what we need to do is build a probe to go out there, burrow itself into a cavity and do rock carvings of the whole XKCD series. We can keep uploading new ones to the probe, but it has to bugger off when Randal retires. I want aliens to find that asteroid and have **no clue other than the cartoons** about the human species.
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Awesome!
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Why would you want it to hit the Earth? That impact would not only do great damage to life, but also completely destroy your very own celestial body. And don’t say it wouldn’t be of any concern to you: unless the asteroid happens to hit you, you will perfectly survive its impact (only to die later of global food shortage).
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They have telnet interface, have you seen it?
telnet ssd.jpl.nasa.gov 6775
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Congratulations! Though, if its orbit should ever alter, sending it careening toward the Earth, we’ll all know who to yell at.
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In Japanese, “4942” can be read as “浴室” (yokushitsu).
It means “bathroom”.
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In Japanese, the number “4942” can be read as “浴室” (yokushitsu).
It means “Bathroom”.
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Couldn’t happen to a better earthling!
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Here in Scotland, a Munro is anything taller than 0.914 km. Your asteroid more than fits the bill.
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Congratulations! We’re big fans of yours here at Planetary Resources. Fun question – how many Stanford Tori you could make out of an given asteroid.
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Very cool, Mr. Munroe. I imagine the walking and jogging aspect would be something like trying to jog on the bottom of a swimming pool. Would you consider treating the physics of these movements in a future “What If?” column?
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Well, now that’s a neat Wikipedia page on 4942 also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4942_Munroe
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This is totally awesome! Congratulations. I’m just another of your multitude of fans who are constantly astounded and heart-lightened by your amazing talent and efforts. You deserve it! Another guy who deserved and got a heavenly body is Leiji Matsumoto (999 Galaxy Express) so you are in good company. At only 300 meters long it would be easier to dock with his Space Battleship Yamato, which also has rocket anchors. FWIW 4942 yokushitsu sounds more like “hot tub room” to me. Perhaps such a hot spring could be discovered on your lovely little planet, it would be a welcome respite for weary travelers. Enjoy it! I have only the highest respect for your wonderful work.
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I honestly feel a little guilty now that I didn’t even know your name. I just thought of you as the guy who does those awesome comics. Congratulations on the asteroid, you definitely deserve it
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Gary Larsen got a louse named after him. Although I’m primarily a biologist, I have to admit that an asteroid feels like it has more street-cred somehow.
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Congrats on having an asteroid named after you!! That’s pretty epic! Nice to know somebody from around here is representing!! I actually met your mom recently, where she works. I live in the area. I was wearing an xkcd tshirt and she struck up a lovely conversation. Made my day! Keep on being excellent!
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Congratulations 🙂 So, does this mean it´s yours now?
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You rock!
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What’s the big deal? My dad had all kinds of asteroids…
None ever got named though…
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That’s awesome! Congrats. You deserve it! 🙂
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How much would it cost to recover it and mount it on a pedestal in your garden/the nearest large open space?
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That’s safely recover it btw.
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Be sure to clean out your volcanoes regularly.
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Well, if you want to go get it Orion is probably your best bet:
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Well, that’s one fewer PINs you can use.
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“Gary Larsen got a louse named after him. Although I’m primarily a biologist, I have to admit that an asteroid feels like it has more street-cred somehow.”
Sorry, I meant Gary Larson, of Far Side fame. Many apologies!
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That’s cool. But reading the name makes it look like “Munroe” is code for “3528211407”.
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You should consider yourself lucky you actually got a four-digit number. I mean, even Pluto has a six-digit number (134340), and by now they’re somewhere in the 300,000s.
Besides, a good fraction of four-digit numbers are already taken (as far as I could count, there are less than 40 still unnamed up to 5000; it does get common enough by 10,000 that there’s probably over a thousand left in the entire four-digit range).
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Well, now that’s a neat Wikipedia page on 4942 also:
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