A peculiar honour

"To him who hath much, shall be given" is a truth which applies to the granting of honours as to so much else in life. But some honours have that stellar quality that makes them stand out from the crowd. Such was the re-naming of "minor planet" 5971 - discovered by H. E. Holt at the Palomar Observatory in July 1991 - as "5971 Tickell" by the IAU Planets Center at Boston, Massachusetts, as announced in the Minor Planets Circular of 13 April 2006.

The unusual honour was in recognition of Sir Crispin's work as a member of the UK Government Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects. We must now all hope that the naming of 5971 Tickell was entirely lacking in any sort of prescience and that the planetoid remains in stable orbit, somewhere in the general region of Pluto, posing no threat to anyone.

Sir Crispin commented: "It is a peculiar sort of honour, but one to be relished nonetheless."