Felix Hormuth (born 1975) is a German
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 ...
, working at the
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy
The Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, MPIA) is a research institute of the Max Planck Society (MPG). It is located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany near the top of the Königstuhl (Odenwald), Kön ...
(MPIA) until 2016, and a prolific
discoverer of minor planets.
During his stay at the
Calar Alto Observatory
The Calar Alto Observatory (Centro Astronómico Hispano en Andalucía or "Spanish Astronomical Centre in Andalusia") is an astronomical observatory located in Almería province in Spain on Calar Alto, a mountain in the Sierra de Los Filabre ...
in Spain, he has discovered many asteroids, including a
Jupiter trojan
The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each Trojan (celestial body), trojan Libration point orbit, librat ...
and two
near-Earth objects
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 ...
, such as the 15-meter
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 ...
,
using MPIA's 1.23-meter reflector telescope.
Career
Hormuth has worked with data obtained by the
Infrared Space Observatory
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was a space telescope for infrared light designed and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), in cooperation with ISAS (now part of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA) and National Aeronautics and ...
,
was involved in the measurement campaign of the Very Large Telescope's
GRAVITY
In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
-interferometer, and participated in the construction of optical instruments used at the
NTT in La Silla, Chile.
As of 2016, he is a project manager at MPIA, working for the Institute's hardware contribution to
ESA's space-based
Euclid
Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...
mission, which will accurately measure the acceleration of the universe for the study of
dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...
and
dark matter
In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
.
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 ...
ranks him 127th for a total of 75 credited discoveries of numbered asteroid during 2003–2009.
Hormuth has named his discovered
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 ...
asteroids
241475 Martinagedeck and
342843 Davidbowie after actors and songwriter
Martina Gedeck and
David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...
, respectively. He has also named
18610 Arthurdent after the character in Douglas Adams's radio play and book ''
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is a Science fiction comedy, comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), radio sitcom broadcast over two series on BBC ...
''.
Honors and awards
The asteroid
10660 Felixhormuth was named in his honor by astronomers Lothar Kurtze and
Lutz Schmadel. The outer main-belt asteroid, provisionally designated 4348 T-1, was discovered by Dutch and Dutch–American astronomers during the
Palomar–Leiden trojan survey in 1971.
Based on an absolute
magnitude
Magnitude may refer to:
Mathematics
*Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction
*Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object
*Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector
*Order of ...
of 13.9, it measures about 4 to 10 kilometers in diameter.
List of discovered minor planets
See also
*
References
External links
Douglas Adams – The more than complete The Hitchhiker's Guide inertramblings.com, 2003
David Bowie may be gone, but he will live on in spaceglobalnews.ca, January 2016
Interview (in German) with Felix Hormuth in 2015
Sternwarte Weinheim(Observatory code
A23)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hormuth, Felix
1975 births
Discoverers of asteroids
*
Living people