Named in memory of the French physicist Jean Perrin (1870–1942), who studied Brownian motion and thereby confirmed the atomic nature of matter. At the same time he formed his ideas about the atom and its electrons, envisaging an atom as a small solar system, thereby anticipating the model by Rutherford. In 1926 he was honored with the Nobel prize in physics. The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Palais de la Découverte in Paris were created through his efforts. French astronomers especially honor him for his creation of the Observatoire de Haute Provence in 1936. (M 31299) _ _.