Fabrizio Bernardi (born 1972) 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

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

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, best known for the co-discovery of the near-Earth and potentially hazardous asteroid

99942 Apophis 99942 Apophis ( provisional designation ) is a near-Earth asteroid and a potentially hazardous object, 450 metres (1,480 ft) by 170 metres (560 ft) in size, that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 when initial observatio ...

. He is a member of the

IAU The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

, and credited 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 ...

with the discovery of 7 numbered minor planets during 2002–2005, including 280244 Ati, another near-Earth object a member of the Amor group of asteroids, and , a

trans-Neptunian object A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has an orbital semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (AU). ...

. In 2002, he discovered the outer

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 65001 Teodorescu at Campo Imperatore station, Gran Sasso, Italy, and named it after his former wife, the Romanian astronomer Ana Teodorescu. He was involved together with colleagues Marco Micheli and David Tholen, with observations of the Mars-crosser asteroid

2007 WD5 is an Apollo asteroid some in diameter and a Mars-crosser asteroid first observed on 20 November 2007, by Andrea Boattini of the Catalina Sky Survey. Early observations of caused excitement amongst the scientific community when it was esti ...

during his stay at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

observatory. While at the

Mauna Kea Observatories The Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) are a group of independent astronomical research facilities and large telescope observatories that are located at the summit of Mauna Kea on Hawaii (island), Hawaiʻi, United States. The facilities are located i ...

in Hawaii, he discovered 268P/Bernardi, a Jupiter family comet. The main-belt asteroid 27983 Bernardi, discovered by astronomers

Andrea Boattini Andrea Boattini (born 16 September 1969) is an Italian astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets. Career After developing a growing interest in minor planets, he graduated in 1996 from the University of Bologna with a t ...

and Maura Tombelli at Cima Ekar, was named in his honor on 9 November 2003 ().

Publications

ACM2002 ''Proceedings'' – Berlin: The Campo Imperatore Near Earth Objects Survey (CINEOS):

, Germano D’Abramo, Giovanni B. Valsecchi, Andrea Carusi, Andrea Di Paola, Fabrizio Bernardi, Robert Jedicke, Alan W. Harris, Elisabetta Dotto and Fiore De Luise, et al. In press. Discovery of the heavily obscured Supernova SN2002CV. ''Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.393, p.L21-L24'' ESO 2002
retrieved 13:18 11.10.11homepage
retrieved 13:03 11.10.11 ''Proceedings of the Planetologia Italiana Workshop'' – Bormio, Italy, 20–26 January 2001: CINEOS – Campo Imperatore Near Earth Objects Survey Expected background of asteroids and stars for the Wide Angle Camera of the Rosetta Mission Asteroid background for the Wide Angle Camera of the Rosetta Mission, Poster, Division for Planetary Sciences 2001, New Orleans, USA ESTEC Internal report, September 2000: ''Image simulation of the inner coma environment for the Wide Angle Camera of the OSIRIS experiment''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernardi, Fabrizio 1972 births Discoverers of minor planets Discoverers of trans-Neptunian objects * 21st-century Italian astronomers Living people

Publications

See also

References