An asteroid discovered at the Calar Alto observatory between the orbits of the Earth and Mars has been called Almería since 1992, commemorating the discovery of America.
The globe is too small to contain the footprint of Andalusia. Since 1992, the year of the fifth centenary of the discovery of America, the New World, Andalusia has had a place in space: it is Almeria, a near-Earth asteroid (NEA). Its dimensions are rather modest, about fifteen metres, although Cheliabinks, which was only a couple of metres longer, unleashed energy similar to that of thirty atomic bombs when it exploded over the Russian sky in February 2013.
Although Almería it lies between the orbit of Mars and the Earth, it does not cross the orbit of our planet. It was discovered at the Calar Alto observatory by the German astronomers Kurt Birkle and Ulrich Hopp, who proposed the name in gratitude for the hospitality they were given in this Andalusian city.
