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Michel Ory

Michel Ory (born 18 April 1966) is a Swiss amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets.[1]

Biography

Ory was born in Develier, in the district of Delémont in the canton of Jura in Switzerland.[2] He attended school in Delémont, and at the cantonal school in Porrentruy,[3] then studied at the University of Geneva, graduating in physics in 1990.[2] He trained as a scientific journalist at Cedos SA in Carouge, qualifying in 1992, then undertook teacher training at the Institut pédagogique in Porrentruy, qualifying as a secondary school teacher in 1994, then becoming a physics teacher at the cantonal school in Porrentruy,[2] a position which he continues to hold in 2012.[4] Ory is married and has two children.[2]

A keen amateur astronomer, he joined the Jura Astronomical Society in 1990 and between 1993 and 1998 he was one of the seven member-builders of the Jura Astronomical Observatory.[2]

Awards

He was one of five winners of the 2009 Edgar Wilson Award[5] for his discovery on 27 August 2008 of 304P/Ory (P/2008 Q2 Ory), a periodic comet of the Jupiter family,[6] using a 24-inch f/3.9 reflector[7] at the Jura Observatory in Switzerland.[2]

In 2018, he was awarded a Gene Shoemaker NEO Grant which will improve the robotic survey he conducts in collaboration with Claudine Rinner at the Oukaïmeden Observatory (J43) in Morocco.[8] He is a teacher of physics at the cantonal school in Porrentruy, Switzerland.[2] The main-belt asteroid 67979 Michelory was named in his honor.[9]

In 2020, he and Claudine Rinner jointly received the Dorothea Klumpke - Isaac Roberts prize from the Société astronomique de France.[10]

Discoveries

During 2000–2010, Michel Ory has made a large number of discoveries of different astronomical objects at several observatory sites.[2] As per 2016, he is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 199 numbered minor planets he made during 2001–2010.[1]

At the Jura Observatory, located in Vicques, Switzerland, he made his most famous discovery, 304P/Ory, a periodic comet of the Jupiter family,[11] and also discovered over 234 asteroids (including unnumbered bodies) and two supernovae.[2] Ory also made discoveries at two other observatory sites in the U.S., namely at Tenagra II Observatory (926), Arizona, and at Sierra Stars Observatory (G68), California, from where he discovered another 11 and 2 asteroids, respectively.[2]

Comet 304P/Ory

It was on the nights of 26–27 and 27–28 August 2008 that Ory discovered what he thought was a near-Earth asteroid,[12] which he reported to the Minor Planet Center, Harvard.[2] At around 8:08 p.m. on 28 August he received notification from the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) that the object was in fact a periodic comet: the announcement ran, "An apparently asteroidal object discovered by Michel Ory (Delemont, Switzerland, on CCD images obtained with a 0.61-m f/3.9 reflector at Vicques; discovery observation tabulated below), which was posted on the Minor Planet Center's 'NEOCP' webpage, has been found by other CCD observers to be cometary."[12]

The comet was named 304P/Ory (P/2008 Q2 Ory) after him, and the CBAT announcement brought congratulations from around the world.[2] The comet orbits the sun in an elliptical orbit with a period of 5.96 years.[13]

Ory received the Edgar Wilson Award from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University,[6] and later in 2008 a square in Viques was named Place de la Comète P/2008 Q2 Ory in honour of his discovery.[14]

List of discovered minor planets

References

  1. ^ a b c "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Emma Chatelain; Philippe Hebeisen (5 November 2010). "Ory, Michel (1966-)". Dictionnaire du Jura. Retrieved 20 Sep 2012.
  3. ^ "Anciens bacheliers". Lycee Cantonal Porrentruy. Retrieved 21 Sep 2012.
  4. ^ Memento 12-13 élèves (PDF), CEJEF Division Lycéenne Lycée Cantonal, 16 August 2012, p. 13, archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2012, retrieved 21 Sep 2012
  5. ^ Holmes, R. E. (August 2009). Green, D. W. E. (ed.). "The Edgar Wilson Award 2009". IAU Circ. 9066: 2. Bibcode:2009IAUC.9066....2H. Retrieved 29 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b CfA Press Room (25 August 2009). "2009 Comet Awards Announced". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Retrieved 19 Sep 2012.
  7. ^ "Five Amateurs Win Comet Prize - News from Sky & Telescope - SkyandTelescope.com". skyandtelescope.com. 21 Sep 2012. Retrieved 21 Sep 2012.
  8. ^ "The 2018 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients". The Planetary Society. March 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  9. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2006). "(67979) Michelory [3.12, 0.03, 13.0]". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 226. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-34361-5_2686. ISBN 978-3-540-34361-5.
  10. ^ “Les distinctions de la Société astronomique de France”, Société astronomique de France, consulted on 6 December 2020.
  11. ^ "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 304P/Ory (2008 Q2)". Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  12. ^ a b Michel Ory (15 September 2008). "Une comète découverte dans le Jura – Michel Ory ou la révolution " P/2008 Q2 Ory "". Société jurassienne d'Emulation. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 19 Sep 2012.
  13. ^ "La comète P/2008 Q2 (Ory)". Jura-Observatory [Observatoire astronomique jurassien]. Archived from the original on 17 September 2013. Retrieved 22 Sep 2012.
  14. ^ "La comète Ory s'est posée à Vicques". RFJ, Radio Fréquence Jura. 13 December 2008. Archived from the original on 8 May 2014. Retrieved 22 Sep 2012.

External links