As minor planet discoveries are confirmed, they are given a permanent number by the IAU's Minor Planet Center (MPC), and the discoverers can then submit names for them, following the IAU's naming conventions. The list below concerns those minor planets in the specified number-range that have received names, and explains the meanings of those names.
Based on Paul Herget's The Names of the Minor Planets,[6] Schmadel also researched the unclear origin of numerous asteroids, most of which had been named prior to World War II. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: SBDB New namings may only be added to this list below after official publication as the preannouncement of names is condemned.[7] The WGSBN publishes a comprehensive guideline for the naming rules of non-cometary small Solar System bodies.[8]
Ron Gasbarini (born 1960) is an amateur astronomer whose interest was inspired by the Apollo missions in the 1960s. He has served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada's Niagara Centre and won the service award of the society in 1995.
Hideo Sugai (born 1930), a retired teacher, is a Japanese amateur astronomer. He has been observing variable stars since 1951, and his data have been reported to the Variable Star Observers League in Japan.
František Hruschka (1819–1888) invented the centrifugal honey extractor and demonstrated it at an exposition in Brno (now in the Czech Republic) in 1865. He gained recognition for the development of modern beekeeping
Henry Kandrup (1955–2003), an American astrophysicist and professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville. His eccentric and energetic lecturing style and love of nonlinear dynamics are now reflected in his celestial namesake, an unusual minor planet on a chaotic trajectory. The asteroid was named in his memory.
Kovářov, first mentioned in 1220, is a south Bohemian village situated in a pleasant hilly landscape near Milevsko. It is known for its rich community life, including living folk customs as well as for its Gothic church and Brokoff's baroque statues. Its Czech name originates from blacksmith work.
George Green (1793–1841), a self-taught miller's son of Nottingham, was instrumental (along with Gauss) in making the theories of electricity and magnetism a part of mathematical physics.
Japanese amateur astronomer Masaaki Tanaka (born 1952) uses a Schmidt camera and binoculars to observe comets. He was one of the observers who rediscovered comet 122P/de Vico on 17 September 1995
Astronomer Anne L. Kinney (born 1950) quantified the misalignment of the central black hole accretion disk and galaxy disk in Seyfert galaxies. She served as Director of NASA's Universe Division and Director of Goddard's Solar System Exploration Division. In 2015 she was named Chief Scientist for the Keck Observatory.
In 1975, Hideo Mitani (born 1946) founded a library of nature photographs, including astronomical photographs. It became the most famous library of its kind in Japan and cultivated many other nature photographers.
Emilie du Châtelet (1706–1749), an acknowledged scientist among the leading thinkers of her time, translated Newton's Principia Mathematica into French in 1749, this still being considered the best existing translation. In 1745 she showed that the energy of a moving object is proportional to its mass and the square of its velocity
Tilman Spohn (born 1950) was director of the Institute of Planetary Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin. He pioneered in-situ measurements of thermal and mechanical properties of planetary surfaces and was Principal Investigator for the instrument MUPUS on the Rosetta lander Philae.
Jean-Claude Guiraudon, who founded the French: Fédération Nationale des Clubs Scientifiques in 1961, which later evolved into the French: Association Nationale Sciences Techniques Jeunesse. He now works at the international level with MILSET, the French: Mouvement International pour le Loisir Scientifique Et Technique, which he helped create.
Michael Bruno mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, North Carolina.
Frank Thorne mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the University School of Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Chihiro Ikezi mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Saint Francis High School, Mountain View, California.
Gregory Darone mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Charter School of Wilmington, Wilmington, Delaware.
Susan Moore mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, New York.
Erin O'Rourke mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Syosset High School, Syosset, New York.
Philippe Pinel (1745–1826), a French physician who made revolutionary contributions to the treatment of patients suffering from mental illness, became chief physician at the La Salpêtrière clinic in Paris. His Traité médico-philosophique sur l´Aliénation mentale (1801) has been translated into several languages
Peter Lowen (born 1966) mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches mathematics at the Ravenwood High School, Brentwood, Tennessee, USA.
The French city of Amiens, the capital of Picardy. It is famous for its cathedral, the tallest of the Gothic churches in France. Notable for its beautiful sculptures on the principal façade, it has been named the "Parthenon of Gothic architecture". The city is also worth a visit for its complex of gardens along the Somme river.
Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) was an Argentine composer best known for his distinct nuevo tango. His fusion of the tango with Western musical elements, especially jazz, was successful in producing a new individual musical style.
Steven R. Chesley (born 1965), of the Solar System Dynamics Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is an expert in determination of the orbits of minor planets and application to the study of earth-impact probability.
Renee Barcia mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Herricks High School, New Hyde Park, New York.
James Austin mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
Ann Sprague (born 1946) is a senior research associate with the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona. She is known for her work on the atmospheres of Mercury, the moon and Mars, as well as on the Messenger mission to Mercury
Fred Hollows (1929–1993), was a New Zealand-born ophthalmologist who saved the sight of thousands of aboriginal and poor people in third-world countries rather than make a comfortable living at home. His work outlives him, following his training of local doctors and establishing local interocular lens factories.
Robert Grimm (born 1960) is a planetary geophysicist. His thermal models led to the first mathematical representations of fluid flow on meteorite parent bodies and to a greater understanding of the thermal and collisional evolution of minor planets, including the heliocentric zonation of the main belt
Rebecca Grella mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Brentwood High School – Sonderling Center, Brentwood, New York.
Stephanie Greenwald mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Byram Hills High School, Armonk, New York.
James Jones (born 1939) studied at Sheffield University in Yorkshire and has been professor of physics at the University of Western Ontario since 1966. Jones pioneered the video observation of meteors and single-station radar radiant mapping.
Rinzo Mamiya (1780–1844), an explorer and surveyor of the northern area of Japan. In 1809, he reached the north Sakhalin and showed that Karafuto (Sakhalin) is an island separated by a narrow channel, now called the Mamiya strait.
Mike Palermiti (born 1949) provides expert consultation to the astronomical community about optics, telescope design and CCDs. He contributed to the early development of low-light-level imaging and has made significant observations of novae, minor planets, comets and occultations. He is a director of an observatory in Florida.
Eddy Echternach (born 1961), a Dutch science writer and assistant editor of the Dutch astronomical magazine Zenit, has been popularizing astronomy since the late 1980s. He is co-author of numerous books on astronomy and astronomical exercises for use in primary and high schools. The name was suggested by C. E. Koppeschaar.
Willem Albertus Fröger (born 1962) is a Dutch amateur astronomer who lives in Argentina. He suggested names and prepared citations for more than 60 minor planets, one lunar crater and two craters on Mars.
Chriet Titulaer (1943–2017), Dutch science writer and astronomer, co-presenter, with Henk Terlingen, of the Dutch television coverage of the Apollo Moon landings
Johannes Lambertus Maria ("Hans") Friedeman (1937–1996), was a Dutch journalist who enthusiastically reported on space travel, science and the environment. In 1977 he started his own weekly page, and in 1981 this led to the first complete section on science and society in a Dutch newspaper.
Henk Terlingen (1941–1994), a Dutch journalist who presented the Apollo Moon missions on Dutch television. Since the 1960s, his broadcasts in collaboration with Chriet Titulaer promoted a great interest in astronomy and space science in the Netherlands. The name was suggested by C. E. Koppeschaar.
Martin Ryle (1918–1984) was a British astrophysicist who developed the aperture synthesis technique of interferometry and constructed large radio telescopes, using them to discover and catalogue numerous radio sources.
William Alfred Fowler (1911–1995) was a nuclear astrophysicist who measured in the laboratory at Caltech the nuclear reactions that occur at lower energies in stars. He also worked on theories of supernovae and early nucleosynthesis.
Olin C. Wilson (1909–1994) was an American spectroscopist who worked on solar and stellar activity cycles. With M. K. V. Bappu he found a method of determining a star's luminosity from the widths of two spectral lines with (see Wilson-Bappu effect)
Thomas G. Cowling (1906–1990), British astrophysicist, was the first to compute a stellar model with a convective core and a radiative envelope. He also developed much of the theory of magnetic fields in stars and magnetospheres.
John G. Bolton (1922–1993) was a pioneer radio astronomer in Australia who used interferometry with direct and sea-reflected signals to identify the first radio sources with optical objects. He directed two major radio observatories.
Chushiro Hayashi (1920–2010) was a Japanese astrophysicist who made pioneering models of star formation and significant discoveries related to the formation of elements in the early universe.
Frank J. Low (1933–2009), American physicist and astronomer, invented the gallium-doped germanium bolometer and became a leader in infrared astronomy. He pioneered open-port airborne astronomy and helped develop infrared spaceborne astronomy.
Einhart (also Eginhard or Einhard, ca. 770) was a Frankish scholar and historian. He was the chancellor of Charles the Great and of his son Ludwig the Pious. Einhard wrote Vita Karoli Magni, the biography of Charles the Great, one of the most precious books of the early Middle Ages
Martin Behaim (1459–1507) was a German merchant, astronomer and cosmographer from Nürnberg. He traveled through Europe and became a Portuguese knight. He developed the earliest terrestrial globe, Erdapfel, or `Earth Apple', with a diameter of about 50 cm
Jeremiah P. Ostriker (born 1937) is an American astrophysicist who has contributed to many fields of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, including the distribution of baryonic and dark matter and values of cosmological parameters.
Donato Bramante (1444–1514) was an Italian architect of the high Renaissance, working mainly in Milan and Rome. In Rome he designed his greatest work, St. Peter's Basilica
Caravaggio (1571–1610) was an Italian artist of the Renaissance. He was almost forgotten after his death, but in the twentieth century his importance was rediscovered because of his great influence on the Baroque style during the Counter Reformation
Begas is the name of a German family of nineteenth-century artists, of whom the best known was Romantik-style painter Carl Joseph Begas (1794–1854). Of his four sons, Reinhold (1831–1911) and Carl Begas Jr. (1845–1916), were sculptors, and Oskar (1828–1883) and Adalbert (1836–1888) Begas were painters
Michiel de Ruyter (1607–1676), in Dutch history a famous admiral, played a decisive role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century. De Ruyter was of humble origin but much loved by his sailors and soldiers. The name was suggested by C. E. Koppeschaar.
William the Silent, Prince of Orange (1533–1584), led the Netherlands provinces in their war of liberation against Spain during 1568–1648. "The Father of the Fatherland" was assassinated and is entombed in the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft. The Dutch national anthem, the Wilhelmus, was written in his honor
Aratus of Soli (c. 315 BC/310 BC – 240 BC)) a Hellenistic poet and author of the Phaenomena, an influential didactic poem composed around 275 B.C. that describes the celestial sphere, the constellations and weather prognostications based on their rising and setting
Conon of Samos (c. 280-c. 220 B.C.) was a Hellenistic astronomer and mathematician who worked in Alexandria. In 246 B.C. he created the constellation of Coma Berenices, commemorating the sacrifice of Queen Berenice's tresses of hair after her husband's return from the Third Syrian War
Callimachus (c. 305–240 B.C.) was a Hellenistic scholar and poet who worked in Alexandria, where he compiled a catalogue of the famous library. He wrote the poem Aetia commemorating the creation of the eponymous constellation Coma Berenices by Conon of Samos in 246 B.C
Gaius Julius Hyginus (c. 64 B.C. – A.D. 17), Roman historian, philologist and mythographer, presided over the Palatine Library in Rome. His De Astronomia (or Poeticon Astronomicon) gives a comprehensive overview of the myths associated with the constellations. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Egbert Ubels (1969–2008), Dutch fireman who perished on 9 May 2008 while fighting a shipyard fire in De Punt (Drenthe, Netherlands), along with colleagues Raymond Patrick Soyer and Anne Kregel
Günther Peter Können (born 1944), a researcher at the Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, specialized in atmospheric optics. He is famous for his book Polarized light in Nature, which describes phenomena such as halos and rainbows. The name was suggested by M. Drummen
Walter Tape (born 1941) is an Alaskan mathematician. With his book Atmospheric halos he made an outstanding contribution to the popularization of these beautiful phenomena. The name was suggested by G. P. Können and M. Drummen
Rebekka A. "Betty" Biegel (1886–1943) studied astronomy in Leiden, obtained her doctorate in Zürich, pursued psychology in Utrecht and developed psychological instruments for testing people. She killed herself with cyanide rather than allow herself to be transported to Auschwitz. The name was suggested by W. R. Dick
Karel F. Wakker (born 1944), professor of astrodynamics at Delft Technical University, has made important contributions to Dutch, ESA and NASA space projects, as well as inspiring numerous students.
Avienius, who lived in the second half of the 4th century, was a Latin poet from Etruria. He composed didactic poems on astronomy and geography. His Aratea was based on earlier Latin translations of Aratus' Phaenomena. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Willem Bilderdijk (1756–1831) was a Dutch poet and scholar who composed two didactic astronomical poems, Starrenkennis (1794) and De Starrenhemel (1807). These described the celestial sphere, the Milky Way and the constellations. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Marcus Manilius (1st century AD), was a Roman poet and astrologer who wrote the comprehensive astronomical-astrological poem Astronomica. The five-volume work was dedicated to Tiberius and contains a mythological description of the constellations and the Milky Way. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent.
Lowell Clark Green (born 1925), a Lutheran pastor/theologian for more than half a century and Renaissance/Reformation scholar, now resident in Buffalo, New York, has given constant support and encouragement to the life and astronomical career of his son, D. W. E. Green, who found the identifications for this object.
Norbert Polko (born 1944) has scanned more than 200,000 glass plates, a world record, from the largest European astronomical plate archive, at the Sonneberg Observatory. The name was suggested by R. Hudec.
Henk Munsterman (born 1946), a Dutch amateur astrophotographer, known for his photographs of planets, minor planets, comets, nebulae, starclusters and galaxies. The name was suggested by Mat Drummen, see (9705).
Pieter van Vollenhoven (born 1939), Dutch professor of risk management at the Technical University of Twente and Dutch ambassador of the International Year of Astronomy
Carl F. Johannink (born 1959) is a Dutch high-school teacher and amateur astronomer. His main interests lie in meteor astronomy. He is a very prolific meteor observer, active within the Dutch Meteor Society. The name was suggested by K. Miskotte
Niek De Kort (born 1956) has done outstanding work popularizing astronomy. He authored several books, including one about space research and the course book Modern Astronomy (1980) for a TV course with an enrollment of 25~000 people. The name was suggested by H. van Woerden and A. v. d. Brugge
Philippus Lansbergen (1561–1632), Calvinist minister and active astronomical researcher in Middelburg, The Netherlands, in 1629 wrote the first popular book on astronomy in the Dutch language. The book promoted the Copernican system and became a bestseller.
Karel van het Reve (1921–1999), professor of Slavic languages at Leiden University and a prolific writer, was considered to be one of the finest Dutch essayists with wide-ranging interests. The name was suggested by F. Israel
Willem Frederik Hermans (1921–1995), a Dutch author considered one of the most important writers in the Netherlands in the postwar period. His oeuvre includes novels, short stories, plays, along with poetry and essays, as well as philosophical and scientific works. The name was suggested by F. Israel
Bambang Hidayat (born 1934) is an active promoter of astronomy in Indonesia. Known for his work on visual binaries and H-emission-line stars, he was director of Bosscha Observatory in Lembang during 1968–1999 and vice-president of the IAU during 1994–2000
Moedji Raharto (born 1954) is an Indonesian astronomer and senior lecturer at the Institut Teknologi Bandung. He was director of Bosscha Observatory in Lembang from 2000–2003 and is an authority on Galactic structure, based on the Hipparcos and IRAS-Point Source catalogues.
Herdiwijaya Dhani (born 1963), an Indonesian astronomer and solar physicist. He was director of Bosscha Observatory in Lembang during 2004–2005. He is known for his work on binaries, solar magnetic activity and its influence on weather and climate.
Taufiq Hidayat (born 1965), an Indonesian astronomer and associate professor at the Institut Teknologi Bandung. He was director of Bosscha Observatory in Lembang during 2006–2009. Known for work on the solar system and extrasolar transits, he actively fights the adverse effects of urbanisation around the observatory
Jacob Kistemaker (1917–2010), Teylers professor at Leiden University, was a pioneer in isotope separation, uranium enrichment, atomic and molecular collisions, and vacuum science and technology. Name suggested by H. Habing and F. Saris.
Theodor Storm (1817–1888), a German writer and local judge in his northern German hometown Husum. He wrote impressive poems and more than 50 novels. As a representative of "poetic realism", he described the landscapes and the people of his north Frisian coastal district.
Trevor Franklin Merkley (born 1983) is the "Spacecraft Fault Protection Lead" of the Lucy mission. He also developed the software for Lucy'sphotovoltaic array deployment.
Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark. Located on the largest island in the world, it has been inhabited for many millennia by indigenous arctic peoples with strong and unique cultural traditions, later joined by people from the Nordic countries.
Stanislav Alekseevich Dovgyj (born 1954), a corresponding member of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences, is a scientist in the field of mechanics.
Gregory R. Bollendonk (born 1960) is the "Spacecraft Systems Engineer" of the Lucy mission and accompanied Lucy's development from concept study to its launch.
Jan-Otto Carlsson (born 1943) is professor of inorganic chemistry at Uppsala University and has for nine years been the dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology.
Michael Sohlman (born 1944) is a well-known Swedish specialist in economics and finance, executive director of the Nobel Fund, a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.
James W. Spink (born 1963) is the Program Manager for the Northrop Grumman's photovoltaic system. The UltraFlex solar array is an accordion fanfold blanket made of triangular-shaped lightweight panels that form a shallow umbrella-shaped membrane structure when tensioned (Src).
Bret Alan Sharp (born 1964) contributed to NASA's is the "Spacecraft Engineering Manager", "Thermal Manager", and the "Propulsion Manager" of the Lucy mission.
Jenna Lynn Jones (née Crowell, b. 1984) received her PhD in physics from the University of Central Florida in 2018. Her dissertation involved shape modeling and analysis of thermal observations of near-Earth asteroid (1627) Ivar. Jenna has been active in outreach activities involving the public and school children in the fields of astronomy and physics.
Semen Ivanovich Churyumov, Ukrainian doctor of philosophy and socionics, senior lecturer in the mathematics department at the Kyiv National Aviation University
Michael A. Hoskin (born 1930) founded the Journal for the History of Astronomy in 1970 and has since served as its editor. He established the archives at Churchill College, Cambridge, is a leading expert on William Herschel and has done pioneering archeoastronomical work around the western Mediterranean basin.
Carey M. ("Casey") Lisse (born 1961) is an expert on cometary dust and has made significant contributions to understanding the size distribution of the dust using infrared observations. The name was suggested by M. F. A'Hearn.
Big John Penney is representative of the team of workers who find a deep and abiding love for the challenges and rigors of wintering at South Pole Station.
Yurij G. Shkuratov (born 1952) is director of the Institute of Astronomy of Kharkiv National University. He is a well known expert in the theory of light scattering and optical measurements of laboratory analogues of asteroid regolith and cometary particles. The citation was written by D. F. Lupishko.
Akperov Imran Guru Ogly (born 1958), professor of economics and president of the inter-regional association of non-state education institutes in southern Russia, is also founder and rector of an institute in Rostov-on-Don. The name was suggested by S. S. Svetashev and R. Y. Gurnikovskaya.
Carolina Carreira Nakou (born 2001), the daughter of Sandra Carreira and Thodoris Nakos. The latter works on galactic lenses at the Royal Observatory at Uccle.
Pliska was the first capital of the Bulgarian state, founded in 681. The conversion to Christianity under Knayz Boris I occurred in Pliska in 855. There he welcomed the disciples of the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, creators of the Slavic alphabet. It is also the birthplace of the discoverer
James Russell Carpenter (born 1966) is the "Goddard Space Flight Center Technical Deputy Manager for Space Science Mission Operations" for the OSIRIS-REx and the Lucy mission.
Gwangju, Korea, became the seventh friendship city of Sendai, Japan on 20 April 2002. Gwangju and Sendai are famous for their cultural, artistic and academic facilities, and each will host World Cup soccer games this year.
Albert Szukalski (1945–2000), Polish-born Belgian sculptor who worked in Antwerp and sometimes used very eccentric means for establishing his work. One of his foremost pieces of art concerns "La Cena", a monument of 13 statues that has been erected in the Nevada desert.
Tajimasatonokai is an astronomy group which has long been engaged in popularizing astronomy by holding public viewing events and lectures around Toyooka city, Hyogo prefecture.
Japanese cypresses (hinoki), especially the Kiso cypresses (Kiso hinoki, in Japanese), were used as building materials for castles during the Edo era. They were protected like human beings. The Kiso cypresses form a natural forest 400 years old.
Jean Louis Marie Poiseuille (1797–1869) was a French physicist and physiologist who, through his work on the pressure of blood, became interested in the resistance of the flow of viscous fluids in small tubes. This led to the formulation of the Hagen-Poiseuille Law. The unit of viscosity is named the poise
Gottfried O. H. Naumann (born 1935) is the director of the Universitäts-Augenklinik in Erlangen-Nürnberg and president of the International Council of Ophthalmology. He is considered one of the foremost ophthalmologists in the world and has received many honors.
Mikael Ingemyr (born 1991), a student at the high school for space studies in Kiruna, was one of the winners of "The Universe—yours to discover with the Nordic Optical Telescope"
Väte is a small parish on Gotland with a church from the thirteenth century. Here can also be found an old farm, Norrbys, reflecting agricultural life 70 years ago
Pierre Van Rompaey (born 1921) is a Belgian architect and an artist of surreal figurative paintings. His popular work is displayed in private collections at Antwerp.
Shuichi Shirasaki (born 1958), an anesthesiologist in Sapporo city, was the finalist in the selection of a Japanese astronaut candidate by the National Space Development Agency of Japan in 1999.
Tatsukushi is a beach on the western side of Ashizuri peninsular in Kochi prefecture known for the unusual sight of rock pillars of various sizes sculpted by waves. An undersea viewing tower is built there to see many kinds of rare fishes.
Calevoet is a hamlet in the southwestern part of the municipality of Uccle. The name means "grassless ford". However, the name also means "bare foot", which gave birth to the legend that Charlemagne crossed the small river at Calevoet barefooted.
Michiko Kudoh (born 1942) has been associated with the Gotoh Planetarium and Astronomical Museum in Tokyo. She reaches out to other astronomers through her website.
Martin Beech (born 1959) is an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. He researches meteor light curves, the dynamics of meteoroid streams, cometary aging and meteoroid-stream formation.
Akebonozou (Stegodon aurorae) is an extinct species of Japanese elephant which lived in the Early Pleistocene (2.5-1 million years ago). An almost complete skeleton of Akebonozou was found in Taga-cho, Shiga Prefecture. The Taga specimen has been designated as a natural monument of Japan.
With his founding in 1831 of the Military Academy of Mathematics, Juan Manuel Cajigal y Odoardo (1803–1856) initiated the study of mathematics and engineering in Venezuela. His installation of the first astronomical telescopes in Caracas was recognized with the establishment of El Observatorio Cajigal there in 1888.
Mumuryk Keiko Yuharo (born 1959) is a painter and illustrator. Having started painting as a 4-year-old, she works in oil, water, engraving and relief. Her illustrations were used for posters by the Japanese International Space Station and the STS-123 Mission.
Marin Marais (1656–1728), the central figure in the French school of bass-viol composers and performers that flourished during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Asada Gouryu (1734–1799), an astronomer in the Japanese Edo period, studied positional astronomy. He also founded "Senjikan", a private school in astronomy, in Osaka, and educated many outstanding astronomers, including Takashi Yoshitoki and Hazama Shigetomi.
Takahashi Yoshitoki (1764–1804) was chief of the Edo National Astronomical Observatory at Edo, Japan, from 1795 to 1804. He mainly studied positional astronomy, devising a new calendar computation method, "Kansei reki", with Hazama Shigetomi.
Luisa Pla, Spanish-Venezuelan teacher of French, born in Villarrobledo co-founder (with her husband, Manuel Sanchez Jordan) of the Lope de Vega high school in Valencia, founder of Spanish history studies at La Universidad de Carabobo
Takahashi Kageyasu (1785–1829) was the chief astronomer of the shogunal government of Japan. He was among the first to compile and publish maps of the world and East Asia based on the latest knowledge then available in scientific geography. He also established the book office of Western culture in 1811.
Rakhat, a planet with the first known extraterrestrial life in the novel The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. First contact is established when a group of specialists organized by Jesuits is sent to the planet.
David Macarthur Johnston (1928–2022), an Australian farmer from Baradine, who was a birdwatcher in the Pilliga forest and an organizer of bird surveys.
Simona Rumenova Nikolova (born 1971), a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, calculated comet data at the Royal Astronomical Observatory in Sofia and studied at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan.
Tomoko Fujiwara (born 1975) is an assistant professor at the Kyushu University. Her main interest consists of the long-term variability of stars and historical records of astronomy. She has been a member of IAU Commission 27 since 2006. The name was suggested by M. Hirai and K. Hurukawa.
The traditional dance troupe "Kikunokai" was established in 1972 by Michiyo Hata (Onoe Kikunori). The Kikunokai has created numerous dance numbers that are based on classical Japanese dance and have been performed in many countries.
Richard Nelson (born 1966) is well known for his work in developing computer simulations for n -body systems and applying these to planet formation, both in our solar system and in other systems.
Amy Phillips (born 1956) received her MS in Optical Sciences from the University of Arizona. She has studied issues in remote sensing and properties of optical materials in harsh environments. She has also worked in the field of intellectual property, and is active in rural and suburban land-use issues.
Peter Gordon Brown (born 1970) studied at the University of Alberta and the University of Western Ontario and was appointed to the faculty of the latter. His specialties are meteoroid streams, meteor analysis and meteorite recovery.
Wilhelm Pickhardt (born 1923) studied geology at the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. He conducted research at the Mining Research Institute for Bituminous Coal and held an adjunct professorship at Technische Universität Berlin.
Corrado Bartolini (born 1941), professor at the University of Bologna since 1970, has focused his interests on contact spectrophotometric binaries, RR Lyrae and magnetic stars and x-ray binaries. With colleagues, he was successful in 1997 in observing the first optical counterpart of a \gamma -ray burst.
Kurt Tucholsky (1890–1935), a German author who was a masterly critic of philistinism, nationalism, militarism and corruptibility. He wrote poems, chansons and stories. His best-known novels were Rheinsberg and Schloá Gripsholm. In 1933, he was expatriated from his homeland and later committed suicide.
The historian of mathematics Pietro Riccardi (1828–1898) wrote the monumental work Biblioteca Matematica italiana dall'origine della stampa ai primi anni del XIX secolo, an annotated bibliography of all the books published by Italian scientists during the nineteenth century
Hiroshi Fujioka (born 1946), born in Kuma Town, is an actor, martial artist, and a dedicated volunteer in Iraq, Ethiopia and Cambodia. Since his debut in 1970, he has starred in more than 20 movies and a number of TV dramas, including the most popular Japanese television program in the 1970s, Kamen Rider
Marcela Bukovanská (born 1935), a research worker in meteoritics, was head of the department of mineralogy and petrology of the National Museum in Prague. Name suggested by M. Šolc.
Kayo Tanno, Japanese elementary school teacher and science educator, who worked on the staff of the Saga prefecture Space and Science Museum during 2002–2006
Eugenia Krysina (born 1952), a chemist who lives in Moscow, is a friend of the discoverer and displays a keen interest in astronomy, especially in minor planets. Zhenya is the diminutive form of Eugenia
Racquetball evolved from the Mayan Meso American ball game played throughout Central America from 2000 B.C. through 1500 A.D. Today the sport is played on a four-wall court by two to four players with a short racquet and a small rubber ball. John Africano, an AMOS team member, has a passion for playing the game.
Alan Reginald Webster (born 1939), a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Western Ontario, has research interests that include meteor astronomy.
The Usuda Deep Space Center of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, located in Saku city, Nagano prefecture, conducts command operations and receives telemetry and data from deep-space explorers such as Hayabusa and Kaguya. The site features a parabolic antenna of diameter 64 meters and weight 1980 tons
During the past three decades amateur astronomer Kiyomi Okasaki (born 1950) has discovered two comets and three supernovae at his observatory in Kahoku, Yamagata prefecture
Massimiliano Beltrame (1942–2001) taught topography and the science of construction at a high school in Terni. He was also an amateur astronomer specializing in photography. An astronomy club in Terni has been named in his memory
With the gracious support of his family, Paul Sydney, a physicist on the AMOS team, has dedicated many long hours to demonstrating that U.S. Air Force assets could be applied successfully to following up minor planets. In return, the Air Force has benefited significantly from collaboration with the astronomical community
The town of Sirataka, where the discoverer was born, is located in the southern part of Yamagata prefecture. The town is famous for its textile industry and weir-fishing
Genichi Araki (born 1954) is an amateur astronomer and a science teacher in Junior High School. He was one of the discoverers of comet C/1983 H1 (IRAS-Araki-Alcock)
Mando, the largest annual festival in Iruma, Saitama prefecture, involves thousands of lantern lights. Since 1978 the Mando Festival has been conducted with the coordinated efforts of the citizenry and administration under a theme of cooperation and communication
Manhattan, is the original island borough of New York City, which was obtained from the Indians by the Dutch in 1626. It became New York under the English in 1664, and is the commercial and cultural heart of the city.
The U.S. city of Perth Amboy, New Jersey city, was settled in 1683 and incorporated in 1718. It is an important industrial city and port of entry with a fine harbor near New York City.
Katsuura is a city in Chiba prefecture, where one can enjoy the wide ocean and forested hills. The Katsuura Tracking and Communication Station of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is located on a hill to conduct command operations and receive telemetry from satellites that observe the earth or the moon
Lawrence Scherr (born 1949), an optical engineer and lens designer, designed the optics for the NEAT/Oschin instrument. He has designed, built, tested or analyzed stray light for prototype medical instruments, intraocular lenses, scaterometers, large surveillance telescopes, automated optical test systems and Mars camera lenses
Tullio Levi-Civita (1873–1941), an Italian mathematician who developed and extended the tensor calculus, originally formulated by Ricci, which plays a central role in the theory of general relativity and in differential geometry. In 1938 Levi-Civita was removed from his professorship at the University of Rome because of his being Jewish.
Seiji Suzuki (born 1933), a retired teacher, is secretary of the Yamagata Astronomers Liaison Conference (since 1997) and the Yamagata Astronomers Club
Osamu Ohshima (born 1954) is a high school teacher and one of Japan's leading observers of variable stars. He was a staff member at Bisei Astronomical Observatory and played an important role in the founding of the observatory, using his talent in mechanical and computer technology
Paula Pravdová (born 1990) is the only daughter of the second discoverer. She inherited many of her father's interests (playing musical instruments, cycling, swimming, diving, singing, joking) and that is why she was very popular when visiting Modra Observatory. Pajka is her familiar name.
Jennifer Harris Trosper (born 1968) led the Mars Pathfinder Surface Operations Test program and was Flight Director for Mars Pathfinder when it landed on 1997 July 4
Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909) was awarded a prestigious prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences while still a student. He was Einstein's teacher at Zurich and later developed the concept of four-dimensional space-time—the mathematical foundation of the special theory of relativity.
Douglas P. Hamilton (born 1/1/1966) is a dynamicist specializing in small particles in the solar system. His major contributions involve motions and resonances when several different forces are involved, work for which he received the American Astronomical Society's Urey prize in 1999. The name was suggested by M. A'Hearn.
Andreas G. Ekholm (1975–2001) was a planetary scientist who contributed to the fields of impact cratering processes, geophysics of icy satellites, and photometry of KBOs and Centaurs. He was also active in humanitarian causes before his premature death in an automobile accident in his native Sweden.
Ekkehard Kührt (born 1954) is the head of the Asteroids and Comets Department of the DLR institute of Planetary Research. He has been active in minor bodies research for decades and was involved in many space missions. Ekkehard has been the project leader of the DLR contributions for the instruments of the Rosetta mission.
Jean Dragesco (born 1920) is an accomplished biologist and amateur astronomer. For many years, using various telescopes, he worked in Africa, where he made exquisite high-resolution photographs of the solar system that have inspired many amateur astronomers around the world.
Daniel Peterson mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Interlake High School, Bellevue, Washington.
Darcy Sloe mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland.
Split is the largest Dalmatian city and the second-largest urban center in Croatia. Located on the shores of the eastern Adriatic Sea, it is a vital link to the numerous surrounding islands. The historic city of Split is built around the "Palace of Diocletian", the world's best preserved Roman palace
Karen Young mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Lexington, Kentucky.
Edwin John Grayzeck, American astronomer, Archive Manager, Small Bodies Node of the Planetary Data System, Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park †
Kathleen Loia mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Lynbrook High School, San Jose, California.
Anne C. Raugh (born 1962), an astronomer and informatician worked as a programmer for the COBE mission and for more than a decade has been the lead applications programmer for the Small Bodies Node of NASA's Planetary Data System at the University of Maryland.
Jan Hoet (1936–2014), a Belgian art curator, has studied art history and archeology. In 1975 he was appointed director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent. Well known from his exposition Documenta IX (Düsseldorf, 1992), he has been responsible for several expositions in Europe, Japan and Canada.
Fazlur Rahman mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Andrew L. Chaikin (born 1956), a renowned author and space historian whose interests include the Apollo program. His landmark book A Man on the Moon served as the basis for the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which dramatized the first lunar exploration.
Makarska is a town located on a horseshoe-shaped bay between the Biokovo mountains and the Adriatic Sea in the Croatian region of Dalmatia. It is the center of the Makarska riviera and noted for its palm-fringed promenade. Its Franciscan monastery houses a renowned seashell collection
Tania Murphy mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Lakeside High School, Atlanta, Georgia.
"El Caracol" at Chichén Itza in Yucatán, Mexico, has been described as probably the most famous of all the astronomically related buildings in ancient Mesoamerica.
Derek C. Richardson (born 1968), an expert on computational techniques of the University of Maryland, has made major contributions to the study of rubble piles, particularly their tidal distortion and their collisions. He is also applying his codes to the formation of planets. The name was suggested by M. F. A'Hearn and P. Michel.
Justin Occhiogrosso mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Harriton High School, Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
Nicole Oresme(c. 1323 – 1382), bishop of Lisieux, conceived the representation of time-varying quantities by two-dimensional graphs, using the latitude-longitude analogy.
Rovinj is a city on the western coast of the Istrian peninsula. It was initially built on an island but connected to the mainland in the eighteenth century. Saint Euphemia's basilica overlooks the medieval city and its 22 offshore islands
Julia Speyer mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. She teaches at the Brookline High School, Brookline, Massachusetts.
Ross Arseneau mentored a finalist in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a science competition for high school seniors. He teaches at the Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills, Michigan.
Schamsoddin Mohammed Hãfez (1324–1390) was a Persian poet. Hãfez means "a person who knows The Koran by heart". He wrote in Persian and Arabic. When the Mongolians came to Persia they respected Hãfez. His lyric poetry is admired in Europe, and it influenced Goethe in his West-östlicher Divan.
Pablo Mendes de Leon (born 1954) has directed the International Institute of Air and Space Law since its creation in 1985 and is a recognized expert in the field. He was recently appointed professor of Air and Space Law at the University of Leiden and delivered his inaugural lecture on 2009 Apr. 17
Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596–1665), a German schoolmaster from Neuhausen near Worms, settled in Amsterdam in the early 1620s, becoming rector of the Latin School in Hoorn in 1637. His Harmonia Macrocosmica, published 1660 in Amsterdam, ranks amongst the most spectacular celestial atlases of the seventeenth century
Anu Belshunu (249 B.C.-c. 185 B.C.) was lamentation priest and interpreter of the astrological omen series Enuma Anu Enlil at the Temple of Anu in Uruk. A collection of astrological cuneiform tablets from his library contains some of the earliest realistic depictions of the Babylonian constellations
Sima Qian (c. 145 B.C.-c. 85 B.C.) was a Chinese historian, counselor and court astrologer of the Han emperor Wu Di. He wrote a treatise on the Chinese calendar. His Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian") contains the earliest systematical description of the Chinese constellations
The Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi; 903–986) worked in Isfahan. His influential star atlas, completed around 964 and based on both Ptolemy's Almagest and pre-Islamic star lore, contains the earliest description of the Andromeda Galaxy, M 31
German mathematician, astronomer and cartographer Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1677–1750) worked in Nürnberg. His Atlas Coelestis, published in 1742, was one of the major celestial atlases of the eighteenth century
A fictional character from the Arabian or 1001 Nights, Tawaddud was a talented slave-girl from Baghdad whose knowledge of astronomy, medicine and theology was superior to that of the best scholars in the court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (who ruled from 786 to 809). The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Maria Cunitia (c. 1604–1664), the daughter of a Polish physician, taught herself astronomy, mathematics, medicine and history. In 1650 she published the Urania Propitia, a collection of astronomical tables based on Kepler's Rudolphine Tables. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Elizabetha Koopman (1647–1693), daughter of a Dutch merchant, was the second wife of Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius. She assisted her husband with his astronomical observations, and after his death in 1687 she prepared his star atlas and catalogue for publication. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Petronella Johanna de Timmerman (1724–1786), a Dutch poet who was educated in astronomy and mathematics at the observatory of Jan de Munck in Middelburg. In 1769 she married the Utrecht astronomer Jan Frederik Hennert and assisted him in his work. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Mary Edwards (c. 1750–1815), of Ludlow, Shropshire, was a skillful mathematical and astronomical computer. From 1773 until her death she performed most of the astronomical computations necessary for the preparation of the Nautical Almanac. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Mary Acworth Orr (1867–1949), wife of the solar physicist and Kodaikanal Observatory director John Evershed, in 1913 published a detailed study of the numerous astronomical allusions in the works of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. The name was suggested by R. H. van Gent
Jan Allard de Boer (born 1943) has been secretary of the Royal Dutch amateur society for meteorology and astronomy (NVWS) since 1995. He has done much to initiate contact between amateurs and professionals. Name suggested by A. v. d. Brugge and H. van Woerden
René Verstappen (born 1948) has been comptroller of the Dutch center for dissemination of information on astronomy, space science and meteorology for 36 years. He has done much for Dutch amateur astronomers. Name suggested by A. v. d. Brugge and H. van Woerden
Marieke Baan (born 1961), a Dutch public information officer. In 2005 she became press officer of the Dutch Research School for Astronomy. As such, she promotes astronomy through press releases, media events, educational activities and other forms of public outreach.
Mignonette Saavedra (born 1931), Chilean psychologist, studied at Smith College and Yale. In her professional life she put emphasis on neuro-psychology. She retired from the chair of the Psychology department at the University of Chile, Santiago in 2007.
Adrie Warmenhoven (born 1961), Dutch astronomy popularizer and educator. He is director of the 18th-century mechanical Eise Eisinga Planetarium in Franeker, The Netherlands.
Henny Lamers (born 1941), a Dutch astrophysicist, studied the evolution and mass loss of the most massive stars. He also gave many dozens of popular astronomy lectures for a wide variety of audiences, including children.
Lucia Padrielli (1943–2003), an Italian radio-astronomer who was closely involved in the "northern cross" radio telescope and in VLBI observations. During her career sheparticipated actively in Italian research policy, and she was president of IAU Commission 40 (Radio Astronomy).
Gustav Leonhardt (1928–2012), Dutch harpsichord player and conductor. He was the founder of the Leonhardt Consort, dedicated to performing baroque music on period instruments. In 1971, together with N. Harnoncourt and his Concentus Musicus, Leonhardt initiated the first complete recording of Bach's Cantatas.
Frans Brüggen (born 1934) is a Dutch recorder player and conductor. He was the founder of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, which is dedicated to performing classical music as authentically as possible. In 2012 he was awarded the Edison Classical Music Award
Ton Koopman (born 1944) is a Dutch harpsichord player and conductor, specializing in Baroque music. He founded the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in 1979, and the Amsterdam Baroque Choir in 1993. With these ensembles, he has given renowned performances of Bach's St. Matthew's Passion
Reinbert de Leeuw (1938 - 2020), a Dutch conductor, pianist and composer, was devoted to performing and recording classical music composed after 1900, preferably in the presence of the composer. In 1974 he founded the Schoenberg Ensemble.
Robert Wielinga (born 1962) is a Dutch physics teacher, active amateur astronomer and popularizer of astronomy. He has been head of the public observatory Sonnenborgh in Utrecht, a member of the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) and secretary of the EAAE Board.
Jacob Rosales (born 1967) of Jalisco, Mexico, and his son, Jacob (Coby) Rosales Chase (born 1996) by Daniel W. E. Green, a close family friend. Jacob senior is an expert musician and teacher, specializing in violin and other stringed instruments; Coby is a student at Case Western Reserve University.
Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634), Dutch painter who specialized in painting the Netherlands in winter during the time that is now known as the Little Ice Age. Many of Avercamp's paintings feature people ice skating on frozen lakes. Name suggested by W. A. Fröger
Paulus Potter (1625–1654) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who painted mostly farm scenes and animals. His realistic paintings put the animals in the forefront so they contrasted against the background and give them a lively appearance. His most famous painting is The Young Bull (c. 1647). Name suggested by W. A. Fröger
Uruguayan poet and writer Juana Fernández Morales de Ibarbourou (1892–1979) was one of the most popular South American poets. Her poems are notable for her identification of her feelings with nature around her.
Martien de Vries (born 1932) is a Dutch astronomer who was part of a small group who developed the first Dutch 1-m telescope on La Silla. His main area of focus was the development and adjustment of the photometer, which he himself used for infrared star measurements.
Daan Frenkel (born 1948) is a leading Dutch scientist who has contributed to the development of Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics simulation methods that led to a greater understanding of the phase behavior of molecular systems. He shed light on the state of carbon in stars and has launched the careers of many young researchers.
Michiel van der Klis (born 1953) is a Dutch astronomer and expert on the properties of neutron stars and black holes. He discovered quasi-periodic oscillations in X-ray binaries. He is the former Director of the Anton Pannekoek Institute in Amsterdam, and the winner of the Bruno Rossi prize (1987) and the Spinoza award (2004).
Heino Falcke (born 1966) is a German radio astronomer working in Nijmegen (Netherlands), known for his innovative use of radio telescopes and his work on the Galactic Centre black hole. He received the Spinoza award in 2011.
Ben Feringa (born 1951) is a renowned Dutch chemist, who won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of molecular machines. He is a passionate lecturer and public advocate for science.
Ger de Bruijn (1948–2017) was a renowned Dutch radio astronomer who worked at Dwingeloo and Groningen. His expertise was key to the scientific and technical success of both the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and LOFAR.
Sonya (Sofiya) and Senya (Semen) are charming and talented children of Mark Ziselevich Orlovskij, Kiev journalist, executive in the publishing trade and friend of the discoverer.
Guy Louis Henri, Marquis de Valory (1692–1774), was a French aristocrat, well known from his friendship with Voltaire. He became an ambassador for the Prussian King Frederic II.
Kochi-Mirai-Kagakukan (Kochi city future science museum) is to be built in the heart of the city and will open in 2017. It will be equipped with a planetarium and is expected to play a role in astronomy education for children.
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834), German philosopher and Protestant theologian. He worked in Halle and Berlin. He contributed to theology, ethics, science, hermeneutics and aesthetics. His main philosophical work is the Dialektik (1839), but he is also known for his translations of Plato.
Utrechtis a city in the Netherlands renowned for its university and the Sonnenborgh Observatory. In 1945, the famous Flemish astronomer Marcel Minnaert introduced the discipline of solar spectroscopy there. In 2004 the city celebrated its 750th anniversary.
Albert Camus, French novelist and essayist, known for his novels L'Etranger and La Peste. Camus won the 1957 Nobel prize for literature. He defended truth, moderation and justice, adhering to liberal humanism and rejecting the dogmatic aspects of both Christianity and Marxism.
Émile Verhaeren, the Belgian poet. Although writing exclusively in French, she took much inspiration from "Flanders Fields", glorifying the greatness of its painters and enjoying the pleasures of its common people. Other important themes in his work are human progress, the brotherhood of man and his love for his wife.
André Chénier (1762–1794), was a French poet who died on the scaffold. The son of a Greek mother and an atheist father, he was inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Holbach's Système de la Nature and d´Alembert's Rêve to write his naturalistic poem Hermès.
Panamarenko (Henri Van Herwegen, born 1940) is a famous Belgian artist, well known for the construction of bizarre flying machines, the main theme for his work, in remembrance of the myth of Icarus. It remains a mystery whether his creations can actually fly.
Andrey Nikolaevich Tupolev (1888–1972) is known worldwide as an airplane designer. More than 100 types of airplanes were created under his guidance, including the first passenger jet aircraft Tu–104. Among the many notable accomplishments of his airplanes was the flight from Moscow over the North Pole to the US in 1937.
Tanezaki is a beach on the eastern side of Urado Bay in Kōchi Prefecture. It is a beautiful parkland dotted with pine trees and a great place for swimming and relaxation for Kochi city residents.
Henri Van Straten (1892–1944) is considered one of the greatest lithographers that Belgium ever produced. His work includes more than 900 prints, using several materials and exposing different themes.
The Dutch city of Berg op Zoom. The medieval city in the southern part of The Netherlands was a fortress held by the Geuzen during the Eighty Years' War. Unsuccessfully besieged by Farnese in 1587 and by Spinola in 1622, this famous rebellion is archived in the beautiful hymn Merck toch hoe sterck.
Breda, a city dating from 1252 in the southern part of The Netherlands, was captured in 1581 by the Spaniards during the Eighty Years' War. In 1590 the town fell again into the hands of Maurice of Nassau, using a handful of men hidden under the turf of a peat-boat.
Tukmit from Native American mythology. He is the Father Sky, and with Tomaiyavit, bore the First People in the creation story of the Luiseño people, a tribe in San Diego County, California.
Louis Godin (1704–1760), French astronomer who proposed to send expeditions to the equator and the polar sea to measure in both places an arc of one degree in order to find out the true shape of the Earth; in 1753 he joined La Condamine and Bouguer on an expedition to Peru to do this very thing
Delft, Netherlands. The city dating from 1246 is famous for its blue pottery, its typical Dutch canal system and its highly esteemed University of Technology.
Guillaume Le Gentil (1725–1792) was a French astronomer who discovered several deep-sky objects. He traveled to India to observe the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. After his return to France in 1771, he published the Voyage dans les Mers de l´Inde, which contains a wealth of data on natural sciences.
Alexandre Guy Pingré (1711–1796), a French astronomer, was sent by the king to the isle of Rodrigue in the Indian Ocean to observe the transit of Venus in 1761. Pingré is particularly known from his two-volume Traité historique et théorique des comètes (1783–1784).
Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), an Italian poet famous for his Sonnets (1327–1374), which were dedicated to his muse, Laura. He was born in Arezzo and died in the Euganean Hills. Petrarca may be regarded as one of the greatest scholars of his age. His critical spirit made him the founder of Renaissance humanism.
Henry Cavendish (1731–1810) was a British eccentric and physicist. In 1798 he successfully determined the universal constant of gravitation using an apparatus with two small lead spheres, attached on a fiber, and two large lead spheres, by measuring the angular deflection of the fiber.
Hans Berger (1873–1941) was a German medical doctor and professor of neurology and psychiatry in Jena. He invented the electroencephalograph, placing electrical recording equipment on the surface of the skull.
Joseph-Nicolas Delisle (1688–1768), was a French astronomer who went to Russia, where he founded the observatory of St. Petersburg. His brother, Guillaume Delisle (1675–1726), reformed French cartography by introducing a method for fixing positions by astronomical observation.
The name Yumeginga is derived from the nickname of the Space and Science Museum in Takeo, Saga prefecture. "Yume" means "dream", and "ginga" means "galaxy". Yumeginga will be celebrating its tenth anniversary in July 2009
Michael Geffert (born 1953) is a German astrometrist at Bonn University working on the precession of stars in globular clusters. He has done valuable work on the Hipparcos input catalog. He is also a discoverer of minor planets. Src
Claude-Louis Berthollet (1748–1822), a French chemist who analyzed ammonia and prussic acid. However, his greatest contributions to chemistry were his studies on chemical affinity and his discovery of the reversibility of reactions (Essai de statique chimique, 1830).
Kvarnis is the nickname of a school in Uppsala's Kvarngärdet district which hosts a scale model of the Saturnian moon Enceladus, as part of Sweden's Solar System
Katie Povenmire, an observer of meteor showers, lunar grazes and minor-planet occultations for determining a body's diameter together with her husband Hal Povenmire. By profession, Katie is a coronary critical care nurse (Src)
Johann J. Balmer (1825–1898), a Swiss mathematician and high-school teacher who examined the four visible lines in the spectrum of the hydrogen atom. By playing around with the numbers of their wavelengths, he finally put all four wavelengths into one equation, i.e., Balmer's formula.
Yangtze River in China. It is the third longest river in the world. With its source at the base of several glaciers in the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the river has great importance for understanding the cultural origins of South China. Humans have lived in the region for at least 27000 years.
James Joule (1818–1889), an English physicist who attempted to demonstrate the unity of forces in nature. In 1840 he determined the mechanical equivalent of heat and showed that heat is produced by motion.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879), was a Scottish mathematician and physicist, working in the discipline of electromagnetism. In A treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), the Maxwell equations appear for the first time. He suggested that the rings of Saturn are composed of small individual particles.
Kim Shin (born 1955), Japanese musician and synthesizer performer, whose compact disc Everlasting Space traveled into space with the shuttle Discovery in 2000
Theodore Lyman (1874–1954), an American physicist who discovered, in 1906, a group of lines in the spectrum of the hydrogen atom that now bears his name. In 1970, a lunar crater was named after him by the IAU.
August Hermann Pfund (1879–1949), an American physicist and professor of optics at Baltimore University. He predicted correctly the very far infrared spectrum of the hydrogen atom (the Pfund series).
Osbourne Reynolds (1842–1912), was a British engineer and physicist known for his work in fluid dynamics. He is remembered for the Reynolds' number (1883), which is defined by the difference between laminar and turbulent flow. He wrote a remarkable book: The Sub-mechanics of the Universe (1903).
Salvador Aguirre (born 1952) is an avid amateur astronomer from Hermosillo, Mexico. He has conducted many observations of variable stars, asteroid occultations, meteors and comets. He has also helped popularize and coordinate amateur astronomical research within Mexico
Hoshinokokai is a star-loving group that has been working voluntarily for 20 years at the astronomical observatory on Tawara Junior High School in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi Prefecture.
Kamen Rider, a Japanese TV character, played by Hiroshi Fujioka, is a cyborg and a lover of justice. Ninety-eight stories of Kamen Rider were broadcast from 1971 to 1973. His fighting action and heroic stories fascinated all boys in Japan, including the discoverer.
Bertha von Suttner (1843–1914), Austrian novelist and one of the first notable woman pacifists. She is credited with influencing Alfred Nobel in the establishment of the Nobel Prize for Peace, of which she was the recipient in 1905.
Arata Oobayashi (1957–1999), a Japanese amateur astronomer and computer engineer. He was also famous as a photographic artist, leaving excellent astronomical photographs. The name was suggested by M. Namiki.
Hagino Akira (1949–1999), Japanese amateur astronomer who died in an accident while observing. He worked as an instructor of popular astronomy at a small astronomical facility in Yamanashi prefecture and inspired many children and visitors with interests in the wonderful night sky.
Mario Rigoni Stern (1921–2008), was an Italian writer, who was born and lived in Asiago. He is known for his poetry and novels about mountain life and habitat. Stern's work has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has won several national and international awards.
Vittorio Beltrami (1926–2012) continuously promoted, supported and encouraged scientific and technological initiatives, in particular at the Belgirate Asteroids-Comets-Meteors Congress in 1993, and also during international events involving space and astronomy, with special attention to minor bodies of the solar system
Federica Mula (born 1995) is the talented daughter of Manuela Sciascia and Nuccio Mula. In the opera Empedocle from Mula-Portera (Agrigento, 2002), she performed the role of the girl who found and returned the sandal of Greek philosopher Empedocles near the Etna volcano
Tom Hanks (born 1956), American actor who starred in such films as Splash, Sleepless in Seattle, Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan, winning Oscars for his roles in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. He was executive producer for the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which dramatized the Apollo expeditions to the moon.
Susumu Takahasi (born 1958), director of the Dynic Astronomical Observatory "Tenkyukan", is ardent about astronomical education and a fine observer of variable stars
Robin Williams (1951–2014), was an actor and a comedian whose television series Mork and Mindy launched his successful career in improvisational comedy and film. He starred in Good Morning Vietnam and Mrs. Doubtfire, as well as in Good Will Hunting, for which he won an Academy Award.
Frank Batteas (born 1955) is a pilot for the F/A–18 and C–17 flight research projects at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. He has accumulated more than 4700 hours of flight experience in more than 40 different types of aircraft
Craig R. Bomben (born 1962) is a pilot in the Flight Crew Branch of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. He has more than 17 years and 3800 hours of flight experience in over 50 different aircraft types
Richard G. Ewers (born 1946) is a pilot in the Flight Crew Branch of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. He has more than 32 years and nearly 9000 hours of flight experience in all types of aircraft.
Francis Crick (1916–2004) was a British scientist who proposed, together with J. D. Watson, the double-helical structure for DNA in 1953. Subsequently, a general theory for the structure of small viruses was worked out. He has also investigated the nature of consciousness in The astonishing hypothesis (1994).
C. Gordon Fullerton (born 1936) is a research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. With over 15~000 hours of flying time, he has piloted 135 different types of aircraft. He has logged 382 hours in space as a NASA astronaut, during two Space Shuttle missions
Axel Munthe (1857–1949), a descendant of a Flemish family that settled in Sweden during the sixteenth century, was a physician and writer who had studied neurology under Charcot. In his autobiographical The story of San Michele (1929), he portrayed the foibles of the rich and the poor in a tragicomic fashion
Marla H. Moore (born 1940), a staff member at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is known worldwide for her studies of the irradiation of ices and the implications of the irradiation processes for interstellar grains, comets, and icy satellites. The name was suggested by M. F. A'Hearn.
Joël (born 1982) and Loïc (born 1985) are the children of Gérard Faure, accountant, amateur astronomer and active Magnitude Alert Project observer of minor planets. Both sons are now students at the University of Grenoble, in the disciplines of economy and computer science
Christopher S. Onken (born 1979) was a summer student at the Lowell Observatory in 1998. As an observer, he made the first LONEOS near-earth-asteroid discovery and suggested many useful improvements to the observing protocol
Roland C. Meier (born 1964), of Gretag Imaging, Zurich, is well known for his research on the chemistry of comets, ranging from studies of the chemistry observed in situ at 1P/Halley with Giotto to numerous optical and radio studies using ground-based telescopes. The name was suggested by M. F. A'Hearn
Nalin Samarasinha (born 1958), a Sri Lanka planetary scientist and discoverer of minor planets of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories, Tucson, has carried out many studies of the dynamical evolution of cometary nuclei and the related dynamical processes of dust in cometary comae. This includes his demonstration of the excited rotational state of 1P/Halley.
Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831) was a Prussian general and intellectual who gained extensive combat experience by fighting against the armies of the French Revolution and Napoleon. His famous book Vom Kriege ("On War") is considered one of the most influential works of military philosophy in the Western world.
Siméon Denis Poisson (1781–1840) was a prolific French mathematician and inspiring teacher who left his mark on many branches of applied mathematics, including electricity and magnetism, celestial mechanics and elasticity. His name is also associated with the Poisson distribution in probability theory.
Michael Mommert (born 1982) has analysed Herschel and Spitzer space telescope observations of transneptunian and near-Earth objects, finding further evidence for links between these populations. He has provided insight into the physical properties of the Plutinos and the cometary component of the NEO population.
Claude-Bénigme Balbastre (1729–1799) was a French composer who, after writing more-or-less academic organ work at Dijon, blossomed as a fashionable Parisian harpsichord teacher and cosmopolite. La Lugeac and La d´Héricourt rank among the very finest keyboard works of the 1750s
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844), French naturalist who established in Philosophie anat-omique (2 volumes, 1818–1822) the principle of unity of organic composition among vertebrates (and later also invertebrates). Opposing Cuvier, Geoffroy's concepts created a receptive scientific audience for Darwin's evolution theory.
Jean-Louis Bougeret (born 1945) is Director of the Laboratoire d´Etudes Spatiales et d´Instrumentation en Astrophysique at Paris Observatory. He is an expert in the solar wind and interplanetary medium, and is active in space research. The name was suggested by M. A. Barucci.
Eleonora Ivanovna Yagudina (born 1941) is a staff member at the Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She has worked extensively on the motions of solar system bodies, and devotes much of her time to educating young people in astronomy
Jack Clifford (born 1933), of Scottsdale, Arizona, is a pioneering cable television entrepreneur, avid amateur astronomer and a major contributor to numerous science and educational institutions. He has been of great service on the Lowell Trustee's advisory board, particularly in fundraising
Joseph John Deliso (1906–1994), contractor, manufacturer, public servant and philanthropist, served many years as Chairman of the Trustees of Springfield Technical Community College, Massachusetts, and was a major endower of that institution. The name was suggested by W. L. Putnam
Samuel Harlowe Goodhue (born 1921), engineer and alpinist of Jackson, New Hampshire, was Chairman of the Trails Committee and then the Huts Committee for the Appalachian Mountain Club. He has been generous with his time and talents to both the Mount Washington (meteorological) and Lowell observatories
Thomas J. Johnson (born 1923) developed a technique for creating Schmidt telescope correctors that allowed the mass production of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes. In 1978 the Optical Society of America awarded him the David Richardson Medal for this work
Livio Muzzonigro (born 1932) an Italian teacher of mathematics and physics at Duca degli in Gorizia, who was a teacher of one of the discoverers of this minor planet at the Farra d'Isonzo Observatory.
Stephen Bisque (born 1960), Thomas Bisque (born 1963), Daniel Bisque (born 1965) and Matthew Bisque(born 1966). Since 1984, they have been developing and distributing software and instrumentation for the astronomical community that completely automates telescope control and CCD image acquisition.
Zheng Zhemin (born 1924), an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Engineering and a foreign academician of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, is one of the founders of the field of explosion mechanics. A leader in the field of mechanics in China, he has proposed and created new branches of mechanics
Premana W. Premadi (born 1964) is an astronomer at the ITBObservatorium Bosscha (Indonesia), an authority on cosmology, and teacher of theoretical astrophysics. Since 2005, she has been a member of the Universe Awareness (UNAWE) International Team, and is the founder and chair of UNAWE Indonesia (2007–2013).
Melanthius (Melanthios), Odysseus's goatherd in Greek mythology. He mocked Odysseus when the latter came to Eumaios disguised as a beggar. Later Odysseus killed him
Yurij Nikolaevich Efremov (born 1937), Russian astronomer and a leading research scientist at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow University. His works on variable stars and star-formation regions are well known. He discovered the period-age relationship for Cepheids and created the concept of large complexes of young stars.
Nikifor Dmitrievich Kalinenkov (1924–1996) was professor of physics and astronomy at the Nikolaev State Pedagogical Institute in Ukraine. He was the first director of the institute's astronomical observatory and contributed much to its instrumentation through "make-it-yourself" telescopes and other devices
Vladimir Ivashov (1939–1995), a Russian Soviet actor who created a striking image of a defender of the motherland in the film Ballad about a soldier produced by Grigorij Chukhraj
Traci Case (born 1976) was a member of the Step-1 proposal team of the Lucy mission, as well as its "Cost, Schedule and Earned Value Lead, and Deputy Payload Manager" at the Southwest Research Institute.
Stephen C. Lowry (born 1976), Irish astronomer who performs precise observations of cometary nuclei to reveal their bulk properties. He also studies physical and chemical properties of near-earth objects.
Chris Elaine Anderson (born 1957) is a typesetter and administrative assistant for the Lucy mission, who participated in the spacecraft's "Step-1 proposal" and the "Phase-A Concept Study Report".
Kathie L. Thomas-Keprta (b. 1957) has made major contributions to the study of extraterrestrial materials. Her research on magnetites found within the Martian meteorite ALH84001 revealed that they could be of biogenic origin.
The Polish city of Toruń, birthplace of astronomer Nicolas Copernicus (1473–1543), whose Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and whose university houses the largest observatory in Poland
