Eleanor F. Helin

Eleanor F. Helin
Eleanor Helin holds the announcement for discovery of 2100 Ra-Shalom, 1979
Born
Eleanor Frances Helin

(1932-11-19)19 November 1932
Died25 January 2009(2009-01-25) (aged 76)
Alma materOccidental College
Known fordiscoverer of minor planets
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsCaltech · JPL
Notable studentsCelina Mikolajczak
Minor planets discovered: 903 [1]
see § List of discovered minor planets

Eleanor Francis "Glo" Helin (née Francis,[2] 19 November 1932 – 25 January 2009) was an American astronomer. She was principal investigator of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.[3][4][5] (Some sources give her name as Eleanor Kay Helin.)

Helin was a prolific discoverer of minor planets (see list) and several comets, including periodic comets 111P/Helin–Roman–Crockett, 117P/Helin–Roman–Alu and 132P/Helin–Roman–Alu. She is credited as the discoverer of the object now known as both asteroid 4015 Wilson–Harrington and comet 107P/Wilson–Harrington. Although Wilson and Harrington preceded her by some decades, their observations did not establish an orbit for the object, while her rediscovery did. Helin discovered or co-discovered 903 asteroids and several comets.[6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC-Discoverers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference AngeloJosephEncyclopediaOfSoaceAndAstronomy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Witimuseum was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference post-gazette was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Palomar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Eleanor Helin". www.planetary.org. Retrieved 16 March 2019.