Best Asteroids
Dante Lauretta is a prominent American astronomer specializing in asteroid science. He leads the OSIRIS-REx mission, responsible for collecting and returning samples from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. His work contributes significantly to our understanding of solar system formation, planetary compo...
Heinrich Olbers was a German astronomer and physician who practiced medicine by day while making significant contributions to celestial mechanics and astronomy. In the early 19th century, he discovered the large asteroids Pallas and Vesta, and developed a method for calculating the orbits of comets...
Max Wolf was a German astronomer who helped establish photography as a systematic method for discovering and studying faint astronomical objects. In 1891 he discovered 323 Brucia photographically, demonstrating that asteroids could be identified as trails or moving points on successive plates instea...
Eugène Joseph Delporte was a Belgian astronomer known for asteroid discovery and for defining modern constellation boundaries. Working at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, he discovered 66 asteroids, including 1221 Amor, which gave its name to the Amor group of near-Earth asteroids. On behalf of the...
Richard Binzel is an American planetary scientist and astronomer who serves as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is best known for creating the Torino Scale, a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects like asteroids and comets. Thr...
Franck Marchis is a French-American astronomer known for discovering and characterizing moons around asteroids using adaptive-optics observations.
Jean-Luc Margot is a Belgian-born astronomer and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research specializes in observational planetary science, particularly using radar techniques to study asteroids. In 2007, he published significant findings providing evidence for a mol...
Amy Mainzer is an American astronomer and planetary scientist who specializes in infrared astronomy and the detection of near-Earth objects. She serves as the principal investigator for NASA's NEOWISE mission, which utilizes a space telescope to discover and track asteroids and comets. She is also l...
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers was a German astronomer and physician who made significant contributions to celestial science in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Practicing medicine by day in Bremen, he pursued astronomy at night, discovering the large asteroids Pallas in 1802 and Vesta in 1...
Brian A. Skiff is an American astronomer associated with Lowell Observatory in Arizona. His observational work includes astrometry and photometry of asteroids, comets, stars, and other astronomical objects, and he has discovered numerous minor planets. Skiff is also known among professional and amat...
Heinrich Louis d'Arrest was a 19th-century German astronomer who made significant contributions to celestial observation and planetary discovery. He is best known for assisting Johann Gottfried Galle in the historic 1846 discovery of the planet Neptune, utilizing mathematical predictions provided by...
Italian astronomer who on January 1, 1801, discovered Ceres, the first known asteroid and now classified as a dwarf planet.
Dutch-American astronomer (1925–2011) at the University of Arizona who founded the Spacewatch survey program and made foundational contributions to the systematic detection of near-Earth asteroids.
German astronomer (1758–1840) who discovered asteroids Pallas (1802) and Vesta (1807) and formulated Olbers' paradox on the darkness of the night sky.
John Russell Hind was an English astronomer at George Bishop's observatory who discovered ten asteroids, including Iris in 1847.
Annibale de Gasparis was an Italian astronomer at Naples who discovered nine asteroids between 1849 and 1865, beginning with Hygiea.
American planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute whose work spans asteroid hazard assessment, Mercury's surface geology, and the broader study of small solar system bodies.
American planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute known for research on asteroid composition, impact cratering processes, and planetary protection from near-Earth objects.
British-American astronomer who served as associate director of the Minor Planet Center at Harvard, overseeing the global cataloging of asteroid and comet orbital data.
