The Purple Mountain Observatory based in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province has named a minor planet discovered by a Chinese researcher after the hometown of its founder.

The minor planet, bearing the international serial number 3611, was named "Dapu" with the approval from the Minor Planet Center under the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the International Minor Planet Nomenclature Committee (IMPNC).

Research fellow Yang Jiexing, who is from Dapu county in the northeastern part of Guangdong Province, discovered the planet on December 20, 1981.

The average distance of the planet to the sun is 418 million-km. It will take 4.65 years for the planet to circle the sun.