Karen Jean Meech

Minor planets discovered: 9 [1]
see § List of discovered minor planets

Karen J. Meech (born 1959) is an American planetary astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) of the University of Hawaiʻi.[2]

Career

Karen Meech specializes in planetary astronomy, in particular the study of distant comets and their relation to the early Solar System. She is also very active in professional-amateur collaboration and science teacher education and was the founder of the Towards Planetary Systems (TOPS) high-school teacher / student outreach program that helps educate science teachers in the Pacific islands. She received her PhD in Planetary Sciences in 1987 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS from Rice University in Houston in 1981, and has received several awards in her career, including the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1988 and the American Astronomical Society's H. C. Urey Prize in 1994.

She was a co-investigator on the Deep Impact mission and current co-investigator on the NASA Discovery missions EPOXI and Stardust-NExT. For all three of these missions she has coordinated the world's Earth-based and space-based observing programs. She is the primary investigator of the University of Hawaiʻi NASA Astrobiology Institute lead team which focuses its research on "Water and Habitable Worlds". She is currently the President of the International Astronomical Union Division III (Planetary Systems Science).

Honors

The outer main-belt asteroid 4367 Meech, discovered by Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in 1981, is named in her honor.[3]

She was named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2024, "for ground-breaking research on solar and extrasolar comets and water distribution in the solar system, organization of large international observing teams, development and management of planetary science programs for teachers, and many years of service to the astronomical community".[4]

List of discovered minor planets

(228229) 1998 MO17 27 June 1998 list
(356386) 2010 OK49 24 June 2004 list
(469361) 2001 HY65 26 April 2001 list [A]
(551000) 2012 UQ169 29 May 2003 list [A]
(553412) 2011 OR46 29 May 2003 list [A]
(557417) 2014 UQ178 30 May 2003 list [A]
(562541) 2016 AL56 30 May 2003 list [A]
(565078) 2017 BR47 31 May 2003 list [A]
(566268) 2017 RH61 30 May 2003 list [A]
Co-discovery made with: A M. W. Buie

References

  1. ^ "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 15 June 2021. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Faculty list". Institute for Astronomy. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
  3. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(4367) Meech". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 375. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_4318. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
  4. ^ "AAS Names 21 New Fellows for 2024". American Astronomical Society. February 1, 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-02.