Charles T. Kowal

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Charles Thomas Kowal
APL
Minor planets discovered: 22 [1]
see § List of discovered minor planets

Charles Thomas Kowal (November 8, 1940 – November 28, 2011) was an American

centaurs, discovered two moons of the planet Jupiter, and discovered or co-discovered a number of asteroids, comets and supernovae. He was awarded the James Craig Watson Medal
for his contributions to astronomy in 1979.

Research

In the 1960s, Kowal observed with the Palomar

SN 1972e
.

In 1973, Caltech astronomers

Trojan asteroids 2241 Alcathous and 2594 Acamas. PCAS later moved to the 48" Schmidt, and ran in total for nearly 25 years, until June 1995.[nb 2]

Kowal provided observations of new Solar System discoveries and reports of new supernovae via the

IAU circular system throughout the 1970s,[6] and searched for new objects. He discovered two moons of Jupiter: Leda in 1974 and Themisto in 1975, the 13th and 14th moons of Jupiter to be found.[7]
Themisto was later lost (i.e. its orbit was not known well enough to reobserve it) and was not rediscovered until 2000.

Between December 1976 and February 1985, Kowal searched 6400 square degrees of sky in the

coma
. Kowal also discovered or co-discovered the periodic comets
158P/Kowal-LINEAR
.

In 1980, Kowal's research in astronomical history found a 1613 drawing by Galileo Galilei showing Neptune near Jupiter, predating the discovery of Neptune in 1846;[9] Kowal was awarded the inaugural R. R. Newton Award for Scientific History for this "shockingly outré" finding.[10]

Kowal moved to the new Space Telescope Science Institute in 1985, where he monitored the instruments of the Hubble Space Telescope as one of the operations astronomers. His book Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization was published in 1988, and a second edition in 1996.

From 1996 until his retirement in 2006, he worked at the

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, providing software for the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft's mission to land on the asteroid Eros
and mission operations support for the NASA TIMED mission.

Kowal died on November 28, 2011, at the age of 71.[11]

Honours and awards

List of discovered minor planets

See also: Category:Discoveries by Charles T. Kowal

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Kowal was a coauthor on volumes 1, 5 and 6.[2]
  2. Near Earth Asteroid Tracking
    (NEAT) survey, which ran on the Schmidt from April 2001 to April 2007.

References

  1. ^ "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. October 29, 2018. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  2. ^ "Query Results from the ADS Database". Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  3. doi:10.1086/110763
    .
  4. doi:10.1086/128951
    .
  5. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(79)90021-6
    .
  6. ^ "Author Query: Kowal, C. T. Query Results from the Astronomy Database". ADS. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  7. ^ Marsden, Brian G. (October 7, 1975). "IAUC 2846: N Mon 1975 (= A0620-00); N Cyg 1975; 1975h; 1975g; 1975i; Sats OF JUPITER". Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, International Astronomical Union. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  8. doi:10.1016/0019-1035(89)90011-0
    .
  9. Bibcode:2008DIO....15....3K
    . Retrieved March 29, 2016.
  10. ^ "DIO $1000 Prizes". DIO Publishing. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  11. ^ News staff reports (December 3, 2011). "Charles T. Kowal, discovered 2 of Jupiter's moons". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on July 23, 2012. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  12. ^ "Awards: James Craig Watson Medal". National Academy of Sciences. 2011. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  13. ^ "Kowal". Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature. Retrieved December 7, 2023.

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