UH astronomer’s
name graces asteroid
She didn't discover
By Helen Altonn
'7804 Boesgaard,' but admirers
in Holland did
Star-BulletinUniversity of Hawaii astronomer Ann Merchant Boesgaard has joined a distinguished list of folks whose namesakes are zipping around the sun.
An asteroid discovered Sept. 24, 1960, has been named for her.
She wouldn't have known about "7804 Boesgaard" if fellow astronomer David Tholen hadn't spotted it in a bulletin on minor planets and comets, she said.
Astronomers C.J. van Houten and I. van Houten-Groeneveld at Holland's Leiden Observatory discovered the asteroid during a survey with Palomar Observatory.
Boesgaard said she was surprised to learn the couple proposed her name since she doesn't know them and she isn't a planetary astronomer.
More than a dozen UH astronomers and planetary geoscientists have had asteroids named for them. But Boesgaard believesmr6 Ann Merchant
Boesgaard
she's the only one with that distinction who studies stars.
She since found such famous names as Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawkings on asteroids. "So, I'm in good company," she said.
"A lot of history, a lot of lore, is associated with asteroid names," said Tholen, whose name is on asteroid 3255.
Explaining how asteroids are named, Tholen said the first person to see one isn't always credited with the discovery. The discoverer is the person who follows it long enough to calculate its preliminary orbit, he said.
The orbital period around the sun for most asteroids ranges from three to six years, he said.
It usually takes several years before an asteroid discovery is assigned a catalog number, he said. Then, "It means the orbit is so well established, you could come back in 10 years and know where to look for it in the sky."
After an asteroid is added to the catalog, the discoverer gets to propose a name, which can't be the discoverer's, he said.
A little citation must be presented saying why the asteroid should be named for a person or place, he said. Boesgaard was cited for her investigations of stellar atmospheres.
Asteroids sometimes are named for places, such as Flagstaff, Ariz., where observatories have discovered a lot of them, Tholen said.
One was named for San Diego after it adopted a street lighting policy favorable to Mount Palomar, he said.
"Nothing is named after Mauna Kea yet," Tholen noted. "We'll have to take care of that."
George Washington Carver, James Cagney, Walter Cronkite, Lou Gehrig and "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry are among notables in the asteroid catalog. Scientists and composers also are common, Tholen said.
Some discoverers will donate their asteroids for groups of names, such as the Beatles and the seven Challenger astronauts, he said.
The astronomical union has a small-bodies committee that reviews names assigned to comets and asteroids to ensure they're in good taste, Tholen said.
The catalog now lists 8,319 asteroids, and there's a new batch every full moon, he said. He expected discoveries this month to push the number over 8,400.
Only 5,850 have names, he said. The rest are waiting for proposed names.
Tholen named one of his discoveries "Kansas" in 1985 to recognize his home state, the centennial of observational astronomy at the University of Kansas, where he got his degree, and the Kansas Indians.
"It would be neat to have Hawaiian names," he said.
He needs another sighting to pin down the orbit for an object he discovered in 1995, and he has a couple of recent asteroid discoveries.
He said UH astronomer Dave Jewitt also has discovered a lot of trans-Neptunian objects that are given asteroid designations. An asteroid also is named for him.
In the old days, Tholen said, asteroid names were feminized or Latinized. For example: McDonalda (for McDonald Observatory), Hamburga (for Hamburg, Germany), Rockefellia (John Rockefeller), Neva (a Russian river) and Ate (goddess of evil, daughter of Zeus).
He was at a party once where a game was played building sentences out of asteroid names.
One that's popular, he said, is: "Rockefellia Neva Ate McDonalda Hamburga."
