Malcolm Hartley (born 15 February 1947, Bury, Greater Manchester) is an English-born astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets and comets, who works with the UK Schmidt Telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia.[2][3][4]
| (21374) 1997 WS22 | 24 November 1997 | catalogue |
| (65674) 1988 SM | 29 September 1988 | catalogue |
| (251698) 1996 DJ | 18 February 1996 | catalogue |
Hartley is best known for his discovery and co-discovery of 10 comets since the 1980s, among them 79P/du Toit-Hartley, 80P/Peters–Hartley, 100P/Hartley, 110P/Hartley, and C/1984 W2.[3][5] Unfortunately for Hartley, in 2002, "the Anglo-Australian Observatory retrofitted its Schmidt to perform multi-object spectroscopy, essentially halting all astrophotography with the telescope and ending any future possibility for comet discovery".[5] In November 2010, he visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory facility in California to witness the EPOXI mission flyby of comet 103P/Hartley on 4 November 2010.[6]
Hartley is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 3 asteroids made at the Siding Spring Observatory between 1996 and 1998, with (21374) 1997 WS22 and (65674) 1988 SM being near-Earth objects of the Amor group of asteroids.[1]
The outer main-belt asteroid 4768 Hartley was named in his honour, being deputy astronomer of the UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring, with which this minor planet was discovered.[3] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 June 1991 (M.P.C. 18464).[7]
