162 Laurentia [SEP] named after
162 Laurentia
162 Laurentia is a large and dark main-belt asteroid that was discovered by the French brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on April 21, 1876, and named after Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, an amateur astronomer who discovered asteroid 51 Nemausa.
An occultation by Laurentia was observed from Clive, Alberta on November 21, 1999.
Photometric observations of this asteroid from multiple observatories during 2007 gave a light curve with a period of 11.8686 ± 0.0004 hours and a brightness variation of 0.40 ± 0.05 in magnitude.
former observatory to Laurent, who later found the asteroid. The house, at 32 rue Nationale in Nîmes (at that time known as rue de l'Agau), has a plaque commemorating the discovery.
Laurent was awarded the Lalande Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1858 for his discovery, jointly with five other asteroid and comet discoverers. In addition, asteroid 162 Laurentia was named in his honour.
Laurent was named assistant astronomer at the Marseille Observatory on 26 November 1858, however he resigned on 20 February 1859