unty in Taiwan. The small planet, about 2.4 kilometers in diameter, was spotted between Mars and Jupiter by the Lulin (Deer Forest) Observatory of the National Central University on Oct. 25.
The Lulin Observatory, located at the Yushan (Mt. Jade) National Park in southwestern Chiayi County.
The star was given a provisional designation of No. 147918 by the International Minor Planet Center.
The International Committee on Small Body Nomenclature has approved an application from the Lulin Observatory to give the planet a formal name of Chiayi on Sept. 26.
Lin Hung-ching, director of the Lulin Observatory, said the observatory launched a sky scouting project in March 2006. A total of more than 450 planets have been uncovered by the observatory so far.
Six of the planets have been confirmed by the International Minor Planet Center and the National Central University owns the right to name four of the newly discovered stars.
Lin said planet Chiayi's orbit brings it to within 280 million kilometers from the sun and as far as 420 million kilometers from it.
It takes about 3.62 years for Chiayi to complete one full revolution around the sun, he said.
The planet can be seen with telescopes in 2010.
Details about the newly-named planets are available at the observatory's Web site.
The Central University already named two other planets discovered by its Lulin Observatory as Lulin and Jhongda (a brief form of National Central University), Lin said.
He added that the university is still considering the name to be chosen for the fourth planet discovered in the universe by the observatory.
There were already several planets carrying Chinese names, including former National Tsinghua University President Hsu Hsia-shen, historian and Chinese martial arts novelist Jing Yong, former Taipei Observatory Director Tsai Hsien-chang, and movie actress Lin Chin-hsia.
Tsai discovered a new planet and adopted his own name. Jing's star was discovered by the Beijing Observatory, while Lin's star was discovered by an overseas Chinese movie fan living in Canada.
Chiayi was also the home of the now-defunct monthly newspaper, The Chiayi Planet. When asked about the observatory's discovery, Planet publisher Kevin Kennedy jokingly replied, "My paper was always ahead of its time."
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