Nanjing Foreign Language School announces that an asteroid is named after the school at a naming ceremony. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

A minor planet discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory was named Nanwai, short for the Nanjing Foreign Language School located in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, to recognize the school's contributions to education.

The school held a naming ceremony on Nov 24 to officially announce the news.

The asteroid was discovered in 2007 and numbered 406308 by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. The request by the Purple Mountain Observatory to name the asteroid Nanwai was granted by the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature of the IAU in May 2021.

"It's quite rare that a minor planet is named after a middle school," said Chang Jin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the National Astronomical Observatories of CAS. "The naming of the Nanwai minor planet is a new start of further research and exploration," added Chang.

The naming of the asteroid after the school is expected to inspire students to learn more about science and explore the truths of the universe, said Zou Zheng, the principal of the school.

Nanjing Foreign Language School is located in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

Established in 1963, NFLS was one of the first seven foreign language schools in China. It is dedicated to educating forward-thinking students with a Chinese soul and global vision. A great number of graduates from the school have grown into professionals in different fields such as diplomacy, literature, and art.

After the ceremony, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories gave students a lecture on radio telescopes.