Vancouver Island’s Tsawout First Nation now has a presence among the stars.
After years of work, Victoria astronomer Dave Balam has pinpointed and named a minor planet in honour of the First Nation.
Tsawout, also known as 402920, is about two kilometres in diameter and is located in our solar system’s asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Balam — who has named about four dozen celestial bodies in his career — said he named the space rock, Tsawout, partly because of his admiration for the First Nation.
“The people of Tsawout have maintained their traditions all this time, for hundreds of years,” said Balam.
“Regardless of famines, floods, starvation or all the bad things that
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