Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld (; ; 21 October 1921 – 30 March 2015) was a Dutch
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 ...
.
Background
In a jointly credited trio with
Tom Gehrels and her husband
Cornelis Johannes van Houten, she was the discoverer of many thousands 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 (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 4,641 numbered minor planets).
In the
Palomar–Leiden survey, Gehrels took the images using the
48-inch Schmidt telescope at
Palomar Observatory
The Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in the Palomar Mountains of San Diego County, California, United States. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...
and shipped the
photographic plates to the van Houtens at
Leiden Observatory, who analyzed them for new asteroids. The trio are jointly credited with several thousand asteroid discoveries. Van Houten-Groeneveld died on 30 March 2015, at the age of 93, in
Oegstgeest, Netherlands.
The
Themistian main-belt asteroid
1674 Groeneveld – discovered by
Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg and independently discovered by Finnish astronomer
Yrjö Väisälä in 1938, was named in her honor ().
Publications
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Notes
References
External links
I. van Houten-Groeneveld home pageSymposium 85e verjaardagof 4 November 2006 (in Dutch)
2005 Annual report of the Leiden Observatory see page 6.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houten-Groeneveld, Ingrid van
1921 births
2015 deaths
21st-century Dutch astronomers
20th-century Dutch women scientists
Discoverers of asteroids
*
20th-century Dutch astronomers
Dutch women scientists
Academic staff of Leiden University
Scientists from Berlin
Women astronomers