- Charles T. Kowal
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Asteroids discovered: 19 1876 Napolitania January 31, 1970 1939 Loretta October 17, 1974 1981 Midas March 6, 1973 2060 Chiron October 18, 1977 2063 Bacchus April 24, 1977 2102 Tantalus December 27, 1975 2134 Dennispalm December 24, 1976 2241 Alcathous November 22, 1979 2340 Hathor October 22, 1976 2594 Acamas October 4, 1978 2629 Rudra September 13, 1980 3163 Randi August 28, 1981 3924 Birch[1] February 11, 1977 4312 Knacke[2] November 29, 1978 (4596) 1981 QB August 28, 1981 (4688) 1980 WF November 29, 1980 (5660) 1974 MA June 26, 1974 (24617) 1978 WU[2] November 29, 1978 Edward L. G. Bowell - 2 with Schelte J. Bus
Charles Thomas Kowal (born November 8, 1940) is an American astronomer.
He discovered two moons of Jupiter: Leda in 1974 and Themisto in 1975, although the latter was lost and not rediscovered until 2000.
He also discovered the unusual asteroid/comet 2060 Chiron in 1977, which became the first object in the Centaur class after a second one was discovered 15 years later.
Besides Chiron he discovered or co-discovered a number of other asteroids, including notably the Aten asteroid 2340 Hathor; the Apollo asteroids 1981 Midas, 2063 Bacchus, 2102 Tantalus, and (5660) 1974 MA; the Amor asteroids (4596) 1981 QB and (4688) 1980 WF; and the Trojan asteroids 2241 Alcathous and 2594 Acamas.
He also discovered many supernovas in other galaxies, and discovered or co-discovered some comets, including periodic comets 99P/Kowal, 104P/Kowal, 134P/Kowal-Vavrova, 143P/Kowal-Mrkos, 158P/Kowal-LINEAR (and Chiron has the cometary designation 95P/Chiron).
During the 1970s, he and Dr. Eleanor Helin, using the California Institute of Technology's (Caltech) 48" Schmidt telescope (now called the Samuel Oschin Telescope) on Palomar Mountain, searched for and tracked previously unknown near-Earth orbiting asteroids.
Kowal won the James Craig Watson Medal in 1979.
Kowal was awarded the initial R. R. Newton Award for Scientific History, for his discovery that Galileo had observed Neptune.
Categories:- 1940 births
- Living people
- American people of Polish descent
- 20th-century astronomers
- American astronomers
- Asteroid discoverers
- Comet discoverers
- Supernova discoverers
- Discoverers of moons
- American astronomer stubs
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