Named in memory of the French navigator Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), best remembered for his circumnavigation on the Bondeuse (1766–1769) and his discovery of several archipelagos in Polynesia. His adventures are recounted in his Voyage autour du monde (1771), wherein he expounds theories about the goodness and the moral virtues of man living in harmony with nature. (M 30802) _ _.
Discovered on 22-9-1990 in La Silla by Elst, E. W.