It was discovered on 30 October 1980 by R. M. West at the European Southern Observatory. The asteroid was named by the IAU in 2002 in memory of the Norwegian explorer and archaeologist Helge Ingstad (1899–2001).

https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/8993_Ingstad

Richard M. West is a Danish astronomer who spent the majority of his career at the European Southern Observatory (ESO). He served as the head of the ESO Information and Photographic Service and played an important role in early data collection, telescope operations and public outreach.
He is most famous for discovering Comet West (C/1975 V1). He also discovered Comet 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura and 123P/West–Hartley pluss 40 Asteroids using ESO’s 1-metre Schmidt Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Martin_West

Helge Marcus Ingstad (30 December 1899 – 29 March 2001) was a Norwegian explorer. In 1960, after mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad found remnants of a Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the province of Newfoundland in Canada.
They were thus the first to prove conclusively that the Icelandic/Greenlandic Norsemen such as Leif Erickson had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to the North American continent roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helge_Ingstad

Sun distance (au): 2,69 Mag. 17,5

Time: 21:05UT 2026-02-21 Exp. 78 x 30sec.
Tel. 0.254m f/5.8 ST-10XME CCD @ -25°C 1.9"/pix
Odd Trondal Obs.code 238 (Uranium). Oslo Norway.