(born 1961) is a Japanese
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
. He is a prolific observer of
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
s and
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...
s, as well as a
discoverer of minor planets
This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 num ...
. He has worked extensively at the
Kuma Kogen Astronomical Observatory
The Kuma Kogen Astronomical Observatory ( Obs. code: 360) is located at Kumakōgen in Ehime Prefecture, Japan.
The observatory is in the Furusato Country Open Air Museum that incorporates the Seiten Castle (''sei ten'' means "fine weather" an ...
near
Kuma,
Ehime Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,334,841 and a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...
, where he remains a staff member. His observations of asteroid brightness are well known.
Career
Nakamura is also member of the
Yamaneko Group of Comet Observers. He named
main-belt
The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...
asteroid
44711 Carp for his favorite
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
team, the
Hiroshima Carp
The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...
, and named
9081 Hideakianno after Japanese animation and film director,
Hideaki Anno
is a Anime, Japanese animator, filmmaker, Film producer, producer, and voice actor. His most celebrated creation, the Neon Genesis Evangelion (franchise), ''Evangelion'' franchise, has had a significant influence on the anime television industr ...
.
Awards and honors
The asteroid
10633 Akimasa,
10633 Akimasa at NASA JPL Small-Body Database
accessed 4 August 2007 orbiting between Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
and Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...
, is named after him and was named in 1999 to coincide with his becoming a father.
List of discovered minor planets
See also
*
References
External links
Kuma Kogen Astronomical Observatory
- English version
20th-century Japanese astronomers
Discoverers of asteroids
*
Living people
1961 births
21st-century Japanese astronomers
Scientists from Yamaguchi Prefecture
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