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Media Release
June 16, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Minor Planet Named for Pioneer Conservationist John Muir
(Los Angeles, CA) - The International Astronomical Union (IAU), through
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's (SAO) Minor Planet Center (MPC),
has announced the naming of a newly discovered minor planet in honor of
pioneer conservationist John Muir. The announcement was made in the June
2006 issue of the Minor Planet Circular, published by the SAO/MPC.
The tiny, 1-mile diameter celestial body, now named "Johnmuir", was
discovered in August 2004 by amateur astronomer R.E. Jones from his
backyard observatory located in a Los Angeles suburb. Mr. Jones was
making photographic measurements of the position of another small
celestial body - a near-Earth asteroid discovered by a professional
observatory just the night before - when he noticed a second, much
slower moving object in his photographs. A check of catalogues and
positions of known objects in the Solar System suggested that the second
object was likely a new discovery. Subsequent observations by the
Francisquito Observatory (the name of Mr. Jones' observatory in
California) and by professional observatories including Mt. Palomar
(also in California) and Kitt Peak in Arizona confirmed the new find,
and Francisquito Observatory was credited by the IAU/MPC with discovery
of Solar System object number 2004PX42.
Once 2004PX42 had been observed a sufficient number of times to enable
the calculation of a very precise orbit (which occurred in early 2006
following additional measurements by the Kitt Peak Observatory), Mr.
Jones was given the opportunity to propose a name for his discovery. The
name Johnmuir was submitted to the 15-member Committee on Small Body
Nomenclature of the IAU and approved just prior to publication of the
SAO/MPC's June 2006 Minor Planet Circular.
In the official citation for the name proposal, John Muir is recognized
for his scientific contributions to the fields of glaciology and botany
in the late 19th century, and for his tireless promotion of the National
Park concept in the early 20th century. John Muir joins a select group
of individuals who have had small Solar System objects named in their
honor, including composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and physicist Albert
Einstein.
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