What's rocky, about a mile wide, orbits between Mars and Jupiter and poses no threat to Earth? An asteroid named "Univofutah" after the University of Utah.

Discovered on Sept. 8, 2008, by longtime Utah astronomy educator Patrick Wiggins, the asteroid also known as 391795 (2008 RV77) this month was renamed Univofutah by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"It's neat," Wiggins says. "There aren't too many other universities on the whole planet with asteroids named after them. So that puts the U in rather rarified company."

"We are very honored," says Carleton Detar, the university's chairman of physics and astronomy. "Patrick Wiggins has been a dedicated champion of Utah amateur astronomy. Next, we'll need student volunteers to install a large block U on our asteroid."

Wiggins, who now works as a part-time public education assistant in the university's Department of Physics and Astronomy, had submitted the naming request in July as "Univ of Utah" but the naming agency changed it to Univofutah - much to the dismay of university marketing officials, who would have preferred "U of Utah." Wiggins says names must be limited to 16 characters, ruling out the university's full name.

The asteroid "is no more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) across," Wiggins says. Because of its small size and distance, it is "too far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the shape."

"Thankfully, this one will not be coming anywhere near the Earth," he adds. "It's a loooong way out. It is in the main asteroid belt. It stays between the orbits or Mars and Jupiter."

As a NASA solar system ambassador to Utah since 2002, Wiggins this year won NASA's Distinguished Public Service Medal, the space agency's highest civilian honor.

More than 655,500 Asteroids Now in the Main Belt Thousands of asteroids are discovered each year, with the total now exceeding 655,500. More than 52,000 have been found so far this year and more than 5,000 so far this month, according to the Minor Planet Center. Near-Earth asteroids, which have orbits that can bring them near Earth, are much less common, with more than 40 discovered so far this year, 897 so far this month and 11,473 found in total.

Wiggins discovered Univofutah using a 35-centimeter (18.8-inch) optical telescope at his home observatory in Toole, Utah.

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Asteroid named for University of Utah makes public debut