astro.wikisort.org - Researcher

Karen J. Meech (born 1959) is an American planetary astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) of the University of Hawaii.[2]

Minor planets discovered: 9 [1]

see § List of discovered minor planets

Career

Karen Meech specializes in planetary astronomy, in particular the study of distant comets and their relation to the early Solar System. She is also very active in professional-amateur collaboration and science teacher education and was the founder of the Towards Planetary Systems (TOPS) high-school teacher / student outreach program that helps educate science teachers in the Pacific islands. She received her PhD in Planetary Sciences in 1987 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BS from Rice University in Houston in 1981, and has received several awards in her career, including the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1988 and the American Astronomical Society's H. C. Urey Prize in 1994.

She was a co-investigator on the Deep Impact mission and current co-investigator on the NASA Discovery missions EPOXI and Stardust-NExT. For all three of these missions she has coordinated the world's Earth-based and space-based observing programs. She is the PI of the University of Hawaii NASA Astrobiology Institute lead team which focuses its research on "Water and Habitable Worlds". She is currently the President of the International Astronomical Union Division III (Planetary Systems Science).

Honors

The outer main-belt asteroid 4367 Meech, discovered by Schelte Bus at the Siding Spring Observatory in 1981, is named in her honor.[3]

List of discovered minor planets

(228229) 1998 MO17	27 June 1998	list
(356386) 2010 OK49	24 June 2004	list
(469361) 2001 HY65	26 April 2001	list [A]
(551000) 2012 UQ169	29 May 2003	list [A]
(553412) 2011 OR46	29 May 2003	list [A]
(557417) 2014 UQ178	30 May 2003	list [A]
(562541) 2016 AL56	30 May 2003	list [A]
(565078) 2017 BR47	31 May 2003	list [A]
(566268) 2017 RH61	30 May 2003	list [A]
Co-discovery made with: A M. W. Buie

References

External links

• Karen Jean Meech homepage at Institute for Astronomy
• Talk of Karen Jean Meech at the Origins 2011 congress

На других языках

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- [en] Karen Jean Meech

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[fr] Karen Jean Meech

Karen Jean Meech (née en 1959) est une astronome américaine spécialisée en planétologie.

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[ru] Мич, Карен

Карен Мич (Karen Jean Meech; род. 1959) — американский астроном, специалист по планетной астрономии, а также астробиолог и педагог. Доктор философии, сотрудница Institute for Astronomy[en] Гавайского университета. Отмечена рядом отличий. Особо она занимается вопросом происхождения воды на Земле.

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