Named for the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), a joint U.S.-Netherlands-U.K. spaceborne all-sky infrared survey satellite launched on 1983 Jan. 26. Over its ten-month lifespan, IRAS made observations of more than 250,000 solar-system and extra-solar-system bodies at wavelengths of 12, 25, 60 and 100 µm. IRAS discovered (3200) Phaethon, parent body of the Geminid meteor stream, as well as four long-period and two short-period comets. (M 34619) _ _.