asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
from the outer region of the
asteroid belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...
, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 7 March 1949, by French astronomer Louis Boyer at the north African
Algiers Observatory
The Algiers Observatory was built in the late 19th century in the Algiers suburb of Bouzaréah, Algeria, North Africa. It participated in the Astrographic Catalogue project, taking the zone between -2 and +4 degrees to expose 1,260 plates betwe ...
in Algeria. It was later named after French astronomer
Marguerite Laugier
Marguerite Laugier (née Lhomme) (12 September 1896 – 10 June 1976) was a French astronomer active at the Nice Observatory from the 1930s to the 1950s. Contemporary astronomical articles refer to her as "Madame Laugier".
The Minor Planet Cente ...