10 Doctor Who Facts You Won't Believe Are True

6. The TARDIS Asteroid

Doctor Who Matt Smith Eleventh Doctor
BBC Studios

On 3 May 1984, American astronomer Brian Skiff discovered an asteroid with an eccentricity of 0.01, and a 22-degree inclination with respect to the ecliptic.

Which, incidentally, sounds like some of the jargon the Doctor would spew out mid-monologue.

Because Skiff is clearly a big ol' nerd, the asteroid was given the name 3325 TARDIS. The giant space rock was given its official title in March 1990 by an organisation called the "Minor Planet Centre", which sounds like it could've been a one-off villain organisation in the classic era.

By the time the asteroid was officially named, Doctor Who wasn't actually on the air anymore, so its designation might've felt a bit odd at the time.

However, when you consider that there are asteroids named after James Bond, Tom Hanks, and Monty Python, naming one after a flying blue box doesn't seem that weird in the long run.

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Jacob Simmons has a great many passions, including rock music, giving acclaimed films three-and-a-half stars, watching random clips from The Simpsons on YouTube at 3am, and writing about himself in the third person.