8990 Compassion

8990 Compassion is an asteroid, originally designated 1980 DN, discovered on 19 February 1980 at the Kleť Observatory in the Czech Republic.

The asteroid was named in response to the September 11 attacks. As a commemorative gesture, the Committee for the Nomenclature of Small Bodies chose three objects discovered in observatories on different continents and christened them with names representing some of the most basic and universal human values. The other two selections were 8992 Magnanimity (discovered from Asia) and 8991 Solidarity (discovered from South America).

References

• This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia, which was accessed in the version of October 23, 2005.