2072 Kosmodemyanskaya, provisional designation , is a stony
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 inner regions 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 6 kilometers in diameter.
The asteroid was discovered on 31 August 1973, by Russian astronomer
Tamara Smirnova
Tamara Mikhaylovna Smirnova (, ; December 15, 1935, Henichesk, Soviet Union — September 5, 2001, Saint-Petersburg, Russia) was a Soviet Union, Soviet/Russian/Ukraine, Ukrainian astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets and comets.
Career
...
at
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory
The Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CrAO, obs. code: 095) is located at Nauchnij research campus, near the Central Crimean city of Bakhchysarai, on the Crimean peninsula. CrAO is often called simply by its location and campus name ...
, Nauchnyj, on the Crimean peninsula. It was named after Lyubov Kosmodemyanskaya, mother of Soviet heroes