Sweet is asteroid #11727 and also known as 1998 JM₁. Sweet measures 4.3 km in diameter. Sweet’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.38 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.05, a period of revolution of 1’344 days, and an inclination of 1.8 degrees. Sweet was discovered during the course of the Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program at the Haleakalā Observatory, also known as the Haleakalā High Altitude Observatory Site, which has been Hawaii’s first astronomical research observatory and from 2000 until 2007 took part in the NEAT program.

Asteroid #11727 is named after Merle Sweet, who was born in 1942 and was an assistant superintendent at the Palomar Observatory. He assisted in overseeing the details in the layout and construction of the slip-ring trolleys and also worked in the rewiring of the observatory’s dome. These little pieces of information from the official asteroid naming citation are everything, which is publicly known about Merle Sweet. His name is surprisingly frequent, yet he seems to be the least known of all the namesakes.

Asteroid #11727 represents sweetness, innocent charm, and “cute” energy. That’s at least what others already want to have figured out. My idea would have been to count Sweet to the food theme asteroids, yet there are many people, who confirm the idea of Sweet representing a “sweet” personality.