Top Results for Asteroids

Heinrich Olbers was a German astronomer and physician who practiced medicine by day while making significant contributions to celestial mechanics and astronomy. In the early 19th century, he discovered the large asteroids Pallas and Vesta, and developed a method for calculating the orbits of comets...

Max Wolf was a German astronomer who helped establish photography as a systematic method for discovering and studying faint astronomical objects. In 1891 he discovered 323 Brucia photographically, demonstrating that asteroids could be identified as trails or moving points on successive plates instea...

Eugène Joseph Delporte was a Belgian astronomer known for asteroid discovery and for defining modern constellation boundaries. Working at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, he discovered 66 asteroids, including 1221 Amor, which gave its name to the Amor group of near-Earth asteroids. On behalf of the...

Richard Binzel is an American planetary scientist and astronomer who serves as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is best known for creating the Torino Scale, a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects like asteroids and comets. Thr...

Franck Marchis is a French-American astronomer recognized for his extensive research on minor planets and the discovery of multiple asteroids possessing satellites. He achieved significant breakthroughs by utilizing advanced adaptive-optics systems to capture high-resolution images of celestial bodi...

Jean-Luc Margot is a Belgian-born astronomer and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research specializes in observational planetary science, particularly using radar techniques to study asteroids. In 2007, he published significant findings providing evidence for a mol...

Amy Mainzer is an American astronomer and planetary scientist who specializes in infrared astronomy and the detection of near-Earth objects. She serves as the principal investigator for NASA's NEOWISE mission, which utilizes a space telescope to discover and track asteroids and comets. She is also l...

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers was a German astronomer and physician who made significant contributions to celestial science in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Practicing medicine by day in Bremen, he pursued astronomy at night, discovering the large asteroids Pallas in 1802 and Vesta in 1...

Brian A. Skiff is an American astronomer associated with Lowell Observatory in Arizona. His observational work includes astrometry and photometry of asteroids, comets, stars, and other astronomical objects, and he has discovered numerous minor planets. Skiff is also known among professional and amat...

Heinrich Louis d'Arrest was a 19th-century German astronomer who made significant contributions to celestial observation and planetary discovery. He is best known for assisting Johann Gottfried Galle in the historic 1846 discovery of the planet Neptune, utilizing mathematical predictions provided by...

Giuseppe Piazzi was an Italian astronomer who discovered Ceres on January 1, 1801, while working at the Palermo Observatory. Ceres was initially treated as a planet, later classified as an asteroid, and is now recognized as a dwarf planet, making Piazzi's observation important to the history of sola...

Tom Gehrels was a Dutch-American astronomer who worked at the University of Arizona from 1925 to 2011. He founded the Spacewatch survey program, which uses systematic astronomical observations to identify and track small bodies in the Solar System, including near-Earth asteroids. His work helped est...

Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers was a German astronomer and physician who lived from 1758 to 1840. He discovered the asteroids Pallas in 1802 and Vesta in 1807, and he also discovered several comets. Olbers developed a method for calculating cometary orbits and is associated with Olbers' paradox, the questi...

John Russell Hind was an English astronomer associated with George Bishop's observatory in London during the nineteenth century. He discovered ten asteroids, including Iris in 1847, and his work also included observations of comets and other celestial objects. Hind represents the period when astrono...

Annibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer associated with the Capodimonte Observatory in Naples. Between 1849 and 1865 he discovered nine asteroids, beginning with Hygiea in 1849 and later identifying bodies such as Parthenope, Egeria, Massalia, and Beatrix. He became director of the Capodimont...

Clark R. Chapman is an American planetary scientist whose research focuses on asteroids, impact cratering, and the geological history of solar-system bodies. His work has included studies of asteroid surfaces and compositions, the effects of impacts on planets and moons, and the assessment of hazard...

Clark Chapman is an American planetary scientist who studies small bodies and impact processes in the solar system. His research has addressed asteroid composition, the geological effects of collisions, and the history recorded by impact craters on planets and moons. He has also contributed to scien...

Gareth Williams is a British-American astronomer associated with the Minor Planet Center, the international service that collects and distributes observations and orbital information for small bodies in the Solar System. His work has included the processing and cataloging of data on asteroids, comet...