Two asteroids named after researchers at the Institute of Astrophysics
Umlaufbahn des Asteroiden PilatLohinger.
Can you imagine looking up at the sky and being able to point to an asteroid named after you? Our colleagues Elke Pilat-Lohinger and Rudolf Dvorak now know what that feels like.
Asteroids in the Solar System are not named after their discoverers. Instead, their names are assigned by the International Astronomical Union’s Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). They are often named in honour of astronomers who have conducted outstanding research on small bodies.
In the latest round of naming, announced during the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors (ACM) conference in Poznań in July, Elke Pilat-Lohinger and Rudolf Dvorak were each honoured with an asteroid. It is therefore now possible to observe (20598) PILAT-LOHINGER and (13107) RUDOLFDVORAK in the asteroid belt.
(20598) PILAT-LOHINGER has a magnitude of 14.1 and a diameter of 4 km. It is located approximately 2.8 astronomical units (au) from the Sun and has an orbital period of around 4.7 years. Its orbit has an inclination of just 3.3° to the ecliptic and a low eccentricity of 0.11.
(13107) RUDOLFDVORAK has a magnitude of 13.8 and a diameter of 5 km. It is located approximately 2.5 au from the Sun and orbits it in around four years. Its orbit has an inclination of 10.3° to the ecliptic and an eccentricity of 0.3.
Our colleagues have thus been “immortalised” in the Solar System, joining a select group of astronomers from the Institute who have had small bodies named after them. The University of Vienna Observatory has a long-standing tradition of research into the Solar System. Other astronomers whose names have been immortalised in this way include Maximilian Hell, the first director of the Observatory; Johann Palisa, who discovered more than 120 asteroids using the Observatory’s telescopes; Anneliese Schnell, very engaged in preserving Central European astronomical history; and Alois Purgathofer, who planned the Leopold Figl Observatory. It is important to note that PILAT-LOHINGER is the first asteroid named after a female astronomer of the University of Vienna.
In words of Elke Pilat-Lohinger:
It feels like: Immortalised in space (because of my research)
Die Astronomin Elke Pilat-Lohinger mit der Urkunde über den nach ihr benannten Asteroiden, der ihr für ihre Verdienste in der Erforschung kleiner Körper des Sonnensystems gewidmet wurde.