An asteroid discovered in 2012 has been named Gioacchinopecci, in honor Pope Leo XIII (Gioacchino Pecci), who reigned from 1878 to 1903.
The Pontiff “had a great interest in the sciences and was responsible for the re-establishment and reform of the Vatican Observatory in 1891 within the walls of the Vatican,” the Vatican Observatory noted.
The naming was announced in the International Astronomical Union’s WGSBN Bulletin (p. 14); the WGSBN is the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature.