Charlie Kowal
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Charles Thomas Kowal (November 8, 1940 – November 28, 2011) was an American
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 ...
known for his observations and discoveries in the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...
. As a staff astronomer at
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
's Mount Wilson and
Palomar Mountain Palomar Mountain ( ; ) is a mountain ridge in the Peninsular Ranges in northern San Diego County, California. It is known as the location of Palomar Observatory and Hale Telescope, and known for Palomar Mountain State Park. History The Luiseà ...
observatories between 1961 and 1984, he found the first of a new class of Solar System objects, the
centaur A centaur ( ; ; ), occasionally hippocentaur, also called Ixionidae (), is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse that was said to live in the mountains of Thessaly. In one version o ...
s, discovered two moons of the planet
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 ...
, and discovered or co-discovered a number 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,
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 and
supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...
e. He was awarded the
James Craig Watson Medal image:Watson_medal_NAS.gif, 400px, James Craig Watson Medal The James Craig Watson Medal was established by the bequest of James Craig Watson, an astronomer the University of Michigan between 1863 and 1879, and is awarded every 1-4 years by the U.S. ...
for his contributions to astronomy in 1979.


Research

In the 1960s, Kowal observed with the Palomar 48" Schmidt telescope, contributing observations to noted
cosmologist Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wor ...
Fritz Zwicky Fritz Zwicky (; ; February 14, 1898 – February 8, 1974) was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical an ...
's six-volume ''Catalogue of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies''. Kowal also began to search for
Type Ia supernova A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
e in other galaxies, in an effort led by Zwicky to calibrate the magnitudes of these exploding stars so that they could be used as
standard candle The cosmic distance ladder (also known as the extragalactic distance scale) is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A ''direct'' distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible ...
s, reliable measures of the distance of their host galaxies (work which in the present has led to accurate measurements of the
expansion of the universe The expansion of the universe is the increase in proper length, distance between Gravitational binding energy, gravitationally unbound parts of the observable universe with time. It is an intrinsic and extrinsic properties (philosophy), intrins ...
). In the course of these Palomar supernovae surveys with the 48" Schmidt, Kowal personally discovered 81 supernovae, including
SN 1972e SN 1972E was a supernova in the galaxy NGC 5253 that was discovered 13 May 1972 with an apparent B magnitude of about 8.5, shortly after it had reached its maximum brightness. In terms of apparent brightness, it was the second-brightest superno ...
. In 1973, Caltech astronomers
Eleanor Helin Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin (née Francis, 19 November 1932 – 25 January 2009) was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (Some sources gi ...
and
Gene Shoemaker Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 â€“ July 18, 1997) was an American geologist. He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn S. Shoemaker and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994: the impact was televi ...
began an observing program to search out and track previously unknown
near-Earth asteroid 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 aro ...
s, the
Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey The Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS) was an astronomical survey, initiated by American astronomers Eleanor Helin and Eugene Shoemaker at the U.S Palomar Observatory, California, in 1973. The program is responsible for the discovery ...
(PCAS), a photographic plate survey that began on the Palomar 18" Schmidt telescope. Although primarily employed by the supernova survey to observe on the 48" Schmidt, Kowal provided "crucial observations" of particularly faint asteroids for the PCAS program with the larger telescope. His asteroid discoveries and co-discoveries include the notable asteroids
Aten asteroid The Aten asteroids are a dynamical group of asteroids whose orbits bring them into proximity with Earth. By definition, Atens are Earth-crossing asteroids . The group is named after 2062 Aten, the first of its kind, discovered on 7 Janua ...
2340 Hathor; the
Apollo asteroid The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Ear ...
s
1981 Midas 1981 Midas, provisional designation , is a vestoid asteroid, classified as a near-Earth object and potentially hazardous asteroid, approximately 2 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 6 March 1973 by American astronomer Charles Kowal a ...
,
2063 Bacchus 2063 Bacchus, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 1 kilometer in diameter. The contact binary was discovered on 24 April 1977, by American astronomer Charles Kowal at the Palo ...
,
2102 Tantalus 2102 Tantalus (1975 YA) is an Apollo asteroid discovered on December 27, 1975, by C. Kowal at Palomar Observatory. It is a Q-type asteroid. 2102 Tantalus is a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) because its minimum orbit intersection distance ...
and (5660) 1974 MA; the
Amor asteroid The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the archetype object 1221 Amor . The orbital perihelion of these objects is close to, but greater than, the orbital aphelion of Earth (i.e., the objects do not cross Earth's orbit ...
s (4596) 1981 QB and (4688) 1980 WF; and the
Trojan asteroid In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points and . Trojans can shar ...
s 2241 Alcathous and 2594 Acamas. PCAS later moved to the 48" Schmidt, and ran in total for nearly 25 years, until June 1995. Kowal provided observations of new Solar System discoveries and reports of new supernovae via the
IAU circular The International Astronomical Union Circulars (IAUCs) are notices that give information about astronomical phenomena. IAUCs are issued by the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) at irregular interva ...
system throughout the 1970s, and searched for new objects. He discovered two
moons A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a deriva ...
of
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 ...
: Leda in 1974 and
Themisto In Greek mythology, Themisto (; Ancient Greek: Θεμιστώ) was a Thessalin princess as the daughter of King Hypseus of LapithsApollodorus, 1.9.2 and the naiad Chlidanope. Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek word: "θεμιστος" ...
in 1975, the 13th and 14th moons of Jupiter to be found. Themisto was later lost (i.e. its orbit was not known well enough to reobserve it) and was not rediscovered until 2000. Between December 1976 and February 1985, Kowal searched 6400 square degrees of sky in the
ecliptic plane The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of Earth around the Sun. It was a central concept in a number of ancient sciences, providing the framework for key measurements in astronomy, astrology and calendar-making. From the perspec ...
for distant, slow-moving Solar System objects. Only one object was found beyond Jupiter:
2060 Chiron 2060 Chiron is a ringed small Solar System body in the outer Solar System, orbiting the Sun between Saturn and Uranus. Discovered in 1977 by Charles Kowal, it was the first-identified member of a new class of objects now known as centaurs— ...
, discovered in 1977, which had the unusual characteristic of features both like an asteroid and a comet. It became recognised as the first object in the centaur class after a second one was discovered 15 years later. Centaurs are objects with unstable orbits which orbit between Jupiter and
Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...
. They are probably drawn in from the
Kuiper belt The Kuiper belt ( ) is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times ...
by alignments with larger planets. Chiron remains one of the largest such worlds known, and one of a handful that have a comet-like
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...
. Kowal also discovered or co-discovered the periodic comets
99P/Kowal 99P/Kowal, also known as Kowal 1, is a periodic comet in the Solar System that orbits out by Jupiter and has a 15 year orbital period. It has been observed regularly since 2019. Its most recent perihelion occurred in April 2022, and is expected ...
,
104P/Kowal 104P/Kowal, also known as Kowal 2, is a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered by Charles T. Kowal in 1979. The orbit was confirmed after new sightings in 1991 and 1998. Observational history In 2003, Gary Kronk and Brian Marsden noticed t ...
, 134P/Kowal-Vavrova, 143P/Kowal-Mrkos, and 158P/Kowal-LINEAR. In 1980, Kowal's research in astronomical history found a 1613 drawing by
Galileo Galilei Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 â€“ 8 January 1642), commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei ( , , ) or mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a poly ...
showing Neptune near Jupiter, predating the
discovery of Neptune The planet Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of September 23–24, Autumnal Equ ...
in 1846; Kowal was awarded the inaugural R. R. Newton Award for Scientific History for this "shockingly outré" finding. Kowal moved to the new
Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the ...
in 1985, where he monitored the instruments of the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
as one of the operations astronomers. His book ''Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization'' was published in 1988, and a second edition in 1996. From 1996 until his retirement in 2006, he worked at the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (or simply Applied Physics Laboratory, or APL) is a not-for-profit university-affiliated research center (UARC) in Howard County, Maryland. It is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University ...
, providing software for the
NEAR Shoemaker ''Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous – Shoemaker'' (''NEAR Shoemaker''), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Eugene Shoemaker, was a Robotic spacecraft, robotic space probe designed by the Johns ...
spacecraft's mission to land on the asteroid
Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...
and mission operations support for the NASA TIMED mission. Kowal died on November 28, 2011, at the age of 71.


Honours and awards

* Kowal was awarded the
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
'
James Craig Watson Medal image:Watson_medal_NAS.gif, 400px, James Craig Watson Medal The James Craig Watson Medal was established by the bequest of James Craig Watson, an astronomer the University of Michigan between 1863 and 1879, and is awarded every 1-4 years by the U.S. ...
for his "noteworthy astronomical discoveries, particularly of Chiron, Leda, and numerous supernovae" in 1979. * The crater ''
Kowal Kowal may refer to: * Kowal (surname), a surname *Kowal (town) Kowal is a town in Włocławek County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,478 inhabitants (2004). History Kowal was the birthplace of Casimir III the Great, the last P ...
'' on
Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...
was named in his honor.


List of discovered minor planets


See also

*


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kowal, Charles T. 1940 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American astronomers * Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets Discoverers of supernovae Discoverers of moons University of Southern California alumni