Focus On: (6235) Burney

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.36 years
Discovered: 14th November 1987 at 10:29 UTC, from the Kushiro Observatory, Hokkaido, Japan, by Seiji Ueda and Hiroshi Kaneda
Events at time of discovery:

• November 14 – Birth of Sofia Assefa, Ethiopian middle-distance runner
• November 15 – In Braşov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime led by Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Focus On: (5143) Heracles

Basics

Class: O-type asteroid
Location: NEO, Apollo group
Orbit length (approx): 2.49 years
Discovered: 7th November 1991, 06:54 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, San Diego, California, by Carolyn Shoemaker
Notes: Approx 4.8km diameter, rare spectral type and binary.
Events at time of discovery:

• November 7 – The first report on carbon nanotubes is published by Sumio Iijima in Nature.
• – Birth of Felix Rosenqvist, Swedish race car driver
• – Death of Valery Aleksyev, 62, Soviet and Russian anthropologist
• – Death of Tom of Finland, 71, Finnish artist
• – Death of Ishak Haji Muhammad, 81, Malaysian writer
• – Death of Guillermo "Willy" Oddó, 48, Chilean musician

Focus On: (4580) Child

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.28 years
Discovered: 4th March 1989, 11:50 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, California, by Eleanor Francis Helin
Events at time of discovery:

• March 4 – Time Inc. and Warner Communications announce plans for a merger, forming Time Warner.
• – The Purley station rail crash in London leaves five people dead and 94 injured.
• – The first Australian Capital Territory elections are held.
• – Death of Tiny Grimes, 72, American jazz and R&B guitarist
• – Death of Viktor Nikiforov, 57, Soviet ice hockey player and Olympic gold medalist
• – Death of Edward Makuka Nkoloso, 69–70, member of Zambian resistance movement, created space programme

Focus On: (3361) Orpheus

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Near Earth, Apollo group
Orbit length (approx): 1.33 years
Discovered: 24th April 1982, 07:12 UTC, from Cerro El Roble Astronomical Station, Chile, by Carlos Torres
Events at time of discovery:

• April 24 – German singer Nicole wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1982 (held in Britain) with the song Ein Bisschen Frieden.
• – Death of Ville Ritola, Finnish Olympic athlete
• – Birth of Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, talk show host
• – Birth of David Oliver, American hurdler

Focus On: (1923) Osiris

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Inner main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.80 years
Discovered: 24th September 1960, 09:01 UTC, from Leiden, Netherlands, by Ingrid and Cornelis Johannes van Houten (on photographic plates taken by Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory)
Events at time of discovery:

• September 22 – Birth of Scott Baio, American actor
• September 24 – The Howdy Doody Show presented its 2,343rd and final episode, after a run that started on NBC on December 27, 1947. After the marionette Howdy Doody, and host Buffalo Bob Smith, gave their farewells, Clarabell the Clown – who had never spoken – surprised his audience by saying, "Goodbye, kids."
• – USS Enterprise, the first atomic-powered aircraft carrier in history, and the largest ship ever built up to that time, was launched at Newport News, Virginia.
• September 25 – Birth of Eduardo Yáñez, Mexican film and television actor

Focus On: (1566) Icarus

Basics

Class: S-type/Q-type asteroid
Location: Near Earth, Apollo group
Orbit length (approx): 1.12 years
Discovered: 27th June 1949, 05:44 UTC, from Palomar Observatory, CA, by Walter Baade.
Notes: Icarus has an extremely eccentric orbit (0.83) and measures approximately 1.4 km in diameter. In 1968, it became the first asteroid ever observed by radar. Lowest numbered potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA).
Events at time of discovery:

• June 27 – The 1949 Australian coal strike began.
• – The Liberal Party of Canada led by Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was easily returned to power in the Canadian federal election.
• – Czechoslovakia banned pastoral letters and meetings of Catholic church officials that were not approved by the government.
• – The science fiction TV series Captain Video and His Video Rangers premiered.
• – Birth of Vera Wang, American fashion designer
• – Birth of Stephen Rucker, television and film composer

Focus On: (490) Veritas

Basics

Class: Ch-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.66 years
Discovered: 4th September 1902 at 00:20 UTC, from Heidelberg, Germany, by Max Wolf
Events at time of discovery:

• September 2 – Birth of Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer & author
• September 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt narrowly escaped death in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after a streetcar collided with the carriage in which he was riding. Roosevelt's bodyguard, agent William Craig, was killed.
• September 4 – The first completely electric railway line, the Ferrovia della Valtellina, began operations in Italy.
• – The Absaroka National Forest was established in the U.S. state of Montana.
• – Edward Elgar's Opus 43, Dream Children, was played for the first time.
• events
• September 5 – Birth of Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer and studio executive

Focus On: (433) Eros

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Near Earth object, part of the Amor group
Orbit length (approx): 1.76 years
Discovered: 13th August 1898 (time unknown), from Berlin, Germany, by Carl Gustav Witt
Notes: Second-largest Near-Earth Object. Visited by the NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 1998, it became the first asteroid ever studied from orbit.
Events at time of discovery:

• August 11 – Birth of Maria Klenova, Russian marine geologist
• August 13 – Birth of Regis Toomey, American actor
• August 15 – Birth of Jan Brzechwa, Polish poet
• August 20 – The Gornergrat railway opens, connecting Zermatt to the Gornergrat in Switzerland.
• August 23 – The Southern Cross Expedition, the first British venture of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, sets sail from London.

Focus On: (399) Persephone

Basics

Class: X-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.33 years
Discovered: 23rd February 1895, 21:43 UTC, by Max Wolf at Heidelberg

Some notable events around time of discovery:

• February 6 – Birth of Babe Ruth, American baseball player
• February 14 – Birth of Max Horkheimer, German philosopher, sociologist
• February 21 – Birth of Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, Nobel Prize recipient
• February 25 – The first rebellions of the Cuban War of Independence break out.

Focus On: (269) Justitia

Basics

Class: Ld-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.23 years
Discovered: 21st September 2024 (time unknown), from Vienna, Austria, by Johann Palisa
Events at time of discovery:

• August 3 – Birth of Rupert Brooke, British war poet
• August 12 – Birth of Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 13 – Birth of Leopold Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 16 – Birth of Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher
• September 26 – Birth of William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, British aviator, first airman to receive the Victoria Cross
• September 28 – The 1887 Yellow River flood begins in China, killing 900,000 to 2,000,000 people.

Focus On: (164) Eva

Basics

Class: CX-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.27 years
Discovered: 12th July 1876 (time unknown), from Paris, France, by Paul-Pierre and Prosper-Mathieu Henry
Notes: Mean radius of just over 100km and the closest of this size to approach the orbit of Mars.
Events at time of discovery:

• July 3 – Birth of George Murray Levick, British Antarctic explorer and naval surgeon
• July 4 – The United States Centennial Exposition is celebrated across the country.
• July 12 – Birth of Max Jacob, French poet
• – Birth of Alphaeus Philemon Cole, American artist, engraver, etcher and supercentenarian
• July 13 – The prosecution of Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman, for using ritualist practices begins.

Focus On: (74) Galatea

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.64 years
Discovered: 29th August 1862 (time unknown), from Marseille, France, by Ernst Wilhelm Tempel
Notes: Very dark in colour.
Events at time of discovery:

• August 22 – Birth of Claude Debussy, French composer
• August 24 – Birth of Zonia Baber, American geographer and geologist
• August 28-30 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Bull Run and Battle of Richmond, Kentucky.

Focus On: (68) Leto

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.64 years
Discovered: 30th April 1861, 01:04 UTC, from Düsseldorf, Germany, by Robert Luther
Notes: Leto has an estimated cross-sectional size of 123km and a rotation period of 14.8 hours.
Events at time of discovery:

• April 12 – The American Civil War begins.
• April 15 – Birth of Bliss Carman, Canadian poet
• May 7 – Birth of Rabindranath Tagore, poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist, story-writer, composer, painter, philosopher, social reformer, educationist, linguist, grammarian, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate

Focus On: (38) Leda

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.54 years
Discovered: 12th January 1856 (time unknown), from Paris, France by Jean Chacornac
Events at time of discovery:

• January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California.
• January 9 – Birth of Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet and teacher
• January 12 – Birth of John Singer Sargent, American artist

Focus On: (25) Phocaea

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt, Phocaea family
Orbit length (approx): 3.72 years
Discovered: 6th April 1853 (time unknown) from Marseille, France, by Jean Chacornac
Notes: Phocaea measures between 61.05 and 83.21km in diameter.
Events at time of discovery:

• April 7 – Birth of Ella Eaton Kellogg, American pioneer in dietetics
• April 16 – Indian Railways: The first passenger railway in India opens from Bombay to Thana, Maharashtra, 22 miles.
• April 22 – Birth of Alphonse Bertillon, French police officer, forensic scientist

Focus On: (20) Massalia

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Inner main belt, Massalia family
Orbit length (approx): 3.74 years
Discovered: 19th September 1852 (time unknown), from Naples, Italy, by Annibale de Gasparis
Notes: Namesake and parent body of the Massalia family, a very large group consisting of stony asteroids with low inclinations.
Events at time of discovery:

• 1852 – French semaphore line is superseded by the telegraph.
• September 24 – Henri Giffard makes the first airship trip.
• September 28 – Birth of Henri Moissan, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 30 – Birth of Charles Villiers Stanford, Irish composer

Focus On: (19) Fortuna

Basics

Class: G-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.82 years
Discovered: 22nd August 1852 (time unknown), from London, U.K., by John Russell Hind
Notes: One of the largest main-belt asteroids, Fortuna has a composition similar to (1) Ceres: a darkly colored surface heavily space-weathered with the composition of primitive organic compounds, including tholins.
Events at time of discovery:

• August 3 – The first American intercollegiate athletic event, the Boat Race between Yale and Harvard, is held.
• August 4 – Birth of Catharine van Tussenbroek, Dutch physician
• August 30 – Birth of Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Dutch chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

Focus On: (18) Melpomene

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.48 years
Discovered: 24th June 1852 (time unknown), from London, U.K., by John Russell Hind
Notes: Composed of silicates and metals.
Events at time of discovery:

• June 30 – The New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 is passed, giving NZ self-government.
• July 1 – American statesman Henry Clay is the first to receive the honor of lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda.
• July 5 – Frederick Douglass delivers his famous speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"

Focus On: (16) Psyche

Basics

Class: M-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.00 years
Discovered: 17th March 1852, 20:55 UTC, from Naples, Italy, by Annibale de Gasparis
Notes: Psyche is thought to be the exposed iron core of a protoplanet. It is the most massive metallic M-type asteroid.
Events at time of discovery:

• February 26 – Birth of John Harvey Kellogg, American Adventist doctor and health reformer
• March 18 – Henry Wells and William Fargo create Wells Fargo & Company.
• March 20 – Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published in book form in Boston, Massachusetts.

Focus On: (15) Eunomia

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.30 years
Discovered: 29th July 1851 (time unknown), from Naples, Italy, by Annibale de Gasparis
Notes: Largest of the stony asteroids.
Events at time of discovery:

• July 20 – Birth of Arnold Pick, Czechoslovakian neurologist
• July 28 – Total solar eclipse visible in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe, the first solar eclipse to be photographed.
• August 12 – Isaac Singer is granted a United States patent for his improved sewing machine.