Jean-Claude Merlin (born 1954) is a French

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 ...

, founder-president of the Burgundy Astronomical Society () and a

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 ...

. He was laureate of the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Fondation de la Vocation in 1982 and received the ''Prix Georges Bidault de l'Isle'' of the

Société astronomique de France The Société astronomique de France (SAF; ), the France, French astronomical society, is a non-profit association in the public interest organized under French law (Association loi de 1901). Founded by astronomer Camille Flammarion in 1887, its ...

in 1999. The

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 57658 Nilrem, discovered by

Michel Ory Michel Ory (born 18 April 1966) is a Swiss amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets. Biography Ory was born in Develier, in the district of Delémont (district), Delémont in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton o ...

at the Jura Observatory in 2001, is named after him. Its naming citation was published on 6 March 2004 ().

List of discovered minor planets

References

* (Images of Comet Tempel 1)

External links

Homepage of the Creusot Station
(IAU code

504 __NOTOC__ Year 504 ( DIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Nicomachus without colleague (or, less frequently, year 1257 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominati ...

) 1954 births Discoverers of asteroids * 20th-century French astronomers Living people 21st-century French astronomers {{france-astronomer-stub