Andrea Boattini (born 16 September 1969) is an Italian

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 ...

and a prolific

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 ...

and

comets 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 surrounding the nucleus, an ...

Career

After developing a growing interest in minor planets, he graduated in 1996 from the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

with a thesis on

near-Earth object A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body orbiting the Sun whose closest approach to the Sun ( perihelion) is less than 1.3 times the Earth–Sun distance (astronomical unit, AU). This definition applies to the object's orbit a ...

s (NEOs). He is involved in various projects related to NEO follow-up and search programs, with special interest in the NEO class known as Atens. He currently works at the

Lunar and Planetary Laboratory The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) is a research center for planetary science located in Tucson, Arizona. It is also a graduate school, constituting the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. LPL is one of the wor ...

, University of Arizona after many years spent at the

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche The National Research Council (Italian: ''Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR'') is the largest research council in Italy. As a public organisation, its remit is to support scientific and technological research. Its headquarters are in Rome. ...

(CNR, National Research Council) and the Astronomical Observatory in Rome. He worked for the Catalina Sky Survey project from 2007 to 2014, in Tucson, Arizona (USA). Meanwhile, he discovered the active comets C/2007 W1 (Boattini), C/2008 J1 (Boattini), C/2008 S3 (Boattini), C/2009 P2 (Boattini), C/2009 W2 (Boattini), C/2010 F1 (Boattini), C/2010 G1 (Boattini) as well as the most distant discovery of an inbound active comet, C/2010 U3 (Boattini). He also accidentally recovered 206P/Barnard-Boattini from the

Mount Lemmon Survey Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) is a part of the Catalina Sky Survey with observatory code G96. MLS uses a cassegrain reflector telescope (with 10560x10560-pixel camera at the f/1.6 prime focus, for a five square degree field of view) operated by ...

''(also see

lost comet A lost comet is one which was not detected during its most recent perihelion passage. This generally happens when data is insufficient to reliably calculate the comet's location or if the solar elongation is unfavorable near perihelion passage. ...

)''.

Honors

Asteroid 8925 Boattini is named in his honour. The official was published by the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

(MPC) on 2 February 1999 ().

List of discovered minor planets

Andrea Boattini is credited by the MPC with the discovery of hundreds of

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s made between 1977 ''(see following comment)'' and 2006. The minor planet , discovered at the Siding Spring Observatory on 17 September 1977, is credited by the MPC to Andrea Boattini and his older co-discoverer

Giuseppe Forti Giuseppe Forti (December 21, 1939 – July 2, 2007) was an Italian astronomer and a discoverer of asteroids. Forti was a trained solar physicist, and worked at Harvard's ''Radio Meteor Project'' and later at the Arcetri Observatory, in Florence ...

(born 1939). However Boattini did not co-discover this asteroid on the day after his 8th birthday in 1977, but rather recovered the body from the original observations, referenced as MPS 18832, which were published by the MPC on 13 October 2000. He named the asteroids 12848 Agostino and 14973 Rossirosina, in honor of his father Agostino (born 1932) and his mother, Rosina Rossi Boattini (born 1934). In addition to the officially discovered (i.e. numbered) minor planets, near-Earth asteroids and , first observed by Boattini in 2007 and 2012, respectively. His co-discoverers are:

M. Tombelli Maura Tombelli (born 1952 in Montelupo Fiorentino) is an Italian amateur astronomer who began her training in astronomy as an observer of variable stars. She is a prolific discoverer of almost 200 minor planets, including the main-belt asteroid ...

, V. Goretti, A. Di Paola,

L. Tesi Luciano Tesi (; born 10 December 1931) is an Italian veterinarian, amateur astronomer, discoverer of many minor planets, and director of the San Marcello Pistoiese Observatory. In 1980, he founded the "Amateur Group of Pistoiese Mountain" (). L ...

, G. Forti, G. D'Abramo, F. Pedichini, A. Caronia, A. Di Clemente, F. Bernardi, V. Cecchini, H. Scholl, M. Mazzucato.

List of discovered comets

Andrea Boattini has also discovered or re-discovered 25

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 ''(see table)''.

References

External links