January 16, 2026 | 08:50 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The name of an Indonesian scientist and Jesuit priest, Christoforus Bayu Risanto, has been officially immortalized as an asteroid in the list of the Working Group for Small Body Nomenclature (WGSBN). This inclusion is a prestigious acknowledgment from the body under the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
This international recognition honors Risanto's scientific contributions to meteorology and atmospheric science. His name appears on page 12 of WGSBN Bulletin 6, published on January 12, 2026. The official designation for the asteroid is (752403) Bayurisanto = 2015 PZ.
The naming places Bayu Risanto alongside various world figures whose names have been previously immortalized. The same list includes names such as Faustina, Ledochowska, and Alabiano, referring to religious and intellectual figures from different eras.
The WGSBN Bulletin explains that the 1981-born scientist focuses on research to improve weather forecast accuracy, especially in areas with limited observational data. Risanto enhances forecasts by combining atmospheric physical models with data assimilation. His work utilizes humidity data from GPS meteorology alongside traditional data sets from weather stations.
Currently, Bayu Risanto works at the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world. According to the institution's website, Risanto conducts research related to atmospheric science. He graduated with a Bachelor of Philosophy from the Driyarkara School of Philosophy in 2007. He later obtained a doctorate in Atmospheric Science and Remote Sensing from the University of Arizona, United States, in 2021.
Bayu Risanto is active in various organizations. He has been a member of the American Meteorological Society since 2014, the American Geophysical Union since 2018, and the European Geophysical Union since 2023. He also received the Krider Endowment Scholarship in Atmospheric Science/Physics in 2020, which supported his studies at the University of Arizona.
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