Asteroid (6081) Cloutis

Edward Cloutis (b.1958), professor at the University of Winnipeg, studies the spectra of mineral assemblages similar to those found on planetary surfaces. He studied at the University of Alberta and finished a Ph.D. in 1992 under Dorian Smith and was the first to derive a relationship between the olivine-orthopyroxene fraction and the ratio of silicate absorption bands in reflectance spectra.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 46007

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5899) Jedicke

Named in honour of the Jedicke family. Peter Jedicke (b. 1955-06-15 in Wiesbaden, Germany), Robert Jedicke (b. 1963-01-30 in Niagara Falls, Canada), and June Jedicke-Zehr (b. 1966-03-17 in Niagara Falls, Canada) grew up in Niagara Falls, where they attended James C.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5688) Kleewyck

The name Klee Wyck was given by Vancouver Island's coastal people to the famous Victoria artist Emily Carr on one of her many painting expeditions into the coastal wilderness in the early 1900s. The name in the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people's language translates to "the smiling one." The name was also used for the friendly orca that served as the official mascot to the fifteenth Commonwealth Games held in Victoria, British Columbia, 1994-08-18 to 1994-08-28.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5661) Hildebrand

This Hilda group member is named in honour of the well-known Canadian geologist Alan R. Hildebrand (b. 1955-05-11), who discovered that the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan region resulted from an asteroid impact that coincided with the terminal Cretaceous extinctions. His linking of a "smoking gun" to a major extinction event in geologic history provided evidence of fundamental importance to the resolution of a centuries-old debate on the demise of the dinosaurs and the occurrence of catastrophes in the earth's history.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5621) Erb

Named in honour of Bryan Erb (b. 1931-04-12 in Calgary, Canada,) and Dona Marie Erb (née German, b. in Calgary, Canada), friends of the discoverer. Bryan studied at the University of Alberta and at Cranfield in the U.K. He joined Avro Canada in 1955, where he conducted aerothermodynamic analysis on the Arrow. During Project Mercury, he predicted the performance of the heatshield, and in 1960 became a member of the 8-person advanced vehicles team that laid the foundations for Apollo.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5424) Covington

Named in honour of Arthur Covington (b. 1913; d. 2001), Canada's first radio astronomer. His discovery, during the partial solar eclipse of 1946-11-23, that microwave emission was far more intense from the vicinity of sunspots than elsewhere on the sun, was the first indicator that magnetic fields were important in the generation of nonthermal cosmic radio emission. In 1947 Covington inaugurated at the National Research Council of Canada daily measurements of the solar microwave flux at 10.7 cm. Name suggested and citation provided by C.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (5272) Dickinson

Named in honour of Terence Dickinson (b. 1943-11-10, d. 2023-02-01), Canada's foremost popularizer of astronomy. Terry, as he was known, became fascinated with astronomy at age 5, when he saw a brilliant meteor from the sidewalk in front of his home in Toronto. This early interest soon became the defining characteristic of Dickinson’s life. From 1973 to 1975 he was editor of Astronomy magazine, and he held scientific positions with the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester and the McLaughlin Planetarium in Toronto.

Continue Reading

Asteroid (4843) Mégantic

Named for Mont Mégantic, the largest observatory in Québec. Founded in 1978, its mission is to promote research in astrophysics, to train students and to promote astronomy in the local culture. The observatory is jointly operated by the Université de Montréal and the Université Laval.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 32344

Continue Reading

Asteroid (4719) Burnaby

Named for the city in British Columbia, Canada, with a population of 150,000. Burnaby and Kushiro, which are at almost the same latitude, have been sister cities since 1965 and exchange students and share cultural experiences with each other.
Discovered by S. Ueda and H. Kaneda at Kushiro. JRASC

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 21132

Continue Reading

Asteroid (4565) Grossman

Chairman of the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, Lawrence Grossman (b.1946) has spent his career studying calcium-aluminum inclusions (CAIs) in carbonaceous chondrites. He was among the first to propose that these minerals condensed from gases in the early solar system.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 41381

Continue Reading

Pages

Subscribe to RASC RSS