Vilnius University Astronomer Černis Has Named Seven Asteroids After Lithuanian Olympians

Dr Kazimieras Černis, a researcher at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Vilnius University (VU), has named seven Trojan asteroids in honour of Lithuanian Olympians – Danas Pozniakas, Šarūnas Marčiulionis, Rūta Meilutytė, Mykolas Alekna, Daina Gudzinevičiūtė, Austra Skujytė and Romualdas Ubartas.

“Among these sportspeople are athletes from the older generation, as well as those who performed brilliantly at elite sporting events this summer and are thus making Lithuania’s name known around the world. They are huge role models for both fellow athletes and sports enthusiasts. I’ve seen this since I was a child – for example, even as a schoolboy I knew about the boxer Pozniakas, Lithuania’s first Olympic champion, and the boys at school, when playing and pretending to be boxers, would even call each other ‘Pozniakas’. I believe that Olympians are truly worthy of such commemoration,” says the astronomer. 

The VU astronomer discovered the asteroids at various observatories. The Trojans “Pozniakas”, “Meilutytė” and “Gudzinevičiūtė” were discovered at the VU Molėtai Astronomical Observatory in 2009, together with VU researcher Dr Justas Zdanavičius, “Alekna” – at the same observatory with Edvardas Černius; “Marčiulionis” was discovered in 2013 at the Baldone Astronomical Observatory in Latvia together with Dr Ilgmārs Eglītis; and in 2015, at the Jesuit Observatory in the Vatican, together with Father Dr Richard P. Boyle, “Ubartas”. The “Skujytė” Trojan was discovered by the Spacewatch astronomical survey project at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona.

These are not the first asteroids to be named after Lithuanian sports figures by Dr Černis. In addition to these, “Sabonis” and “Vitkauskas” are already orbiting in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU), which assigns names to celestial bodies, has designated a separate group of asteroids, known as Trojans, which may be named exclusively after Olympians.

“The Trojans orbit the Sun for 12 years, alongside Jupiter. They are interesting because they are quite far from Earth and move in different orbits to ordinary asteroids. They used to be named after heroes of the Trojan War, but some time ago it was decided to also name them after Olympians. So now all the large asteroids in this group have Greek names, whilst the smaller ones are named after athletes. One of the first Trojans discovered by my colleagues and me was named after Sabonis,” says Dr Černis.

Further technical information on the parameters of asteroids can be found on the website of the VU Faculty of Physics. The asteroid designations were published in the February and May 2026 issues of the WGSBN Bulletin.

Since 2004, Dr Černis and his colleagues have named more than 160 asteroids, 110 of which have Lithuanian names or names linked to Lithuanian history.