Its official, North Dakota has its own asteroid. Orbiting some 270 million miles from Earth, the stellar object was discovered by UND Ph.D. student Vishnu Reddy in 2003. Reddy, who was working with Roy Tucker in Tucson, Arizona when he discovered the asteroid, named the asteroid in thanks for all the state has done for him.
About 270 million miles from here, there's another North Dakota. It's just as cold. (114703) North Dakota is an asteroid discovered by Vishnu Reddy, a UND doctoral student from India. In the astronomy world, if you find it, you can name it. Reddy named it after the state as a "fitting parting gift for the state supporting my education for six years." He will graduate with a doctorate this summer after also earning his master's at UND. He discovered the asteroid, which is considered a small solar system body, revolving around the sun between Jupiter and Mars five years ago. Astronomers do know that the asteroid is 1 to 3 miles in diameter. But there's no way to guess girth or weight.
An asteroid whizzing around the sun between Mars and Jupiter has officially been named North Dakota, making the state one of the few with such a heavenly distinction. University of North Dakota graduate student Vishnu Reddy discovered the celestial rock in 2003, using a telescope at an observatory in Arizona. Reddy, a native of India, said he proposed naming the asteroid for North Dakota to honour the state and to bring attention to its lack of a big telescope necessary to track the heavens.