Asteroid Named in Parks's Memory

On 09/06/2010, astronomers working with data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft discovered an asteroid that would later receive the official name 284996 Rosaparks in honor of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Initially given the provisional designation 2010 LD58, the object was identified within the outer region of the main asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid was discovered through observations conducted by the WISE mission, a NASA space telescope launched in 2009 to survey the sky in infrared wavelengths. After additional orbital observations confirmed the object’s path, it received the permanent numerical designation 284996 and was later officially named “Rosaparks” through the naming system overseen by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. The naming recognized Rosa Parks’s enduring contributions to civil rights and social justice in the United States. Astronomical data describes 284996 Rosaparks as a dark main-belt asteroid approximately 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) in diameter, making it comparable in size to Manhattan Island. The asteroid travels around the Sun once every approximately 2,030 days, or about 5.56 years, following an orbit between roughly 2.7 and 3.5 astronomical units from the Sun. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory does not classify the asteroid as hazardous because its orbital path remains far from Earth’s orbit and presents no known impact threat. The official naming of the asteroid placed Rosa Parks among a group of globally recognized historical figures commemorated through astronomical nomenclature. Parks became internationally known after refusing to surrender her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on 01/12/1955, an act that helped launch the Montgomery bus boycott and became one of the defining moments of the American Civil Rights Movement. The asteroid later gained additional public attention in 2018 when it appeared symbolically in the Doctor Who episode “Rosa,” which explored Rosa Parks’s historical legacy and introduced audiences to the existence of the celestial tribute named in her honor. Why This Moment Matters : The naming of asteroid 284996 Rosaparks reflected how Rosa Parks’s influence extended beyond political history into scientific and cultural recognition. Assigning her name to a celestial object demonstrated the lasting international respect for her role in advancing civil rights and human equality.