A main-belt asteroid has been named for Riccardo Muti, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 10th music director. Discovered on Nov. 1, 1996, by V.S. Casuli at Colleverde Observatory in Guidonia Moteceilio, Italy, about 14 miles northeast of Rome, the asteroid has been named 37735 Riccardomuti.
The asteroid, which is 2.248 kilometers in diameter, was last observed on May 6, 2017. It has an absolute magnitude (the measure of a celestial object’s luminosity) of 14.8 H (the more luminous an object, the smaller its AM numerical value) and an orbital period of 3.57 years. Main-belt asteroids move between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Photo: Millions of asteroids, some nearly the size of small planets, orbit in our solar system. | Photo: NASA
The CSO’s music director position has been endowed in perpetuity by a gift from the Zell Family Foundation.