ASTRONOMER SPOSETTI NAMES 3 MINOR PLANETS HONORING GP-B PRINCIPALS

Swiss physics teacher and amateur astronomer Stefano Sposetti, along with his colleagues and pupils, has been following GP-B with great interest for a number of years. In August 2004, he photographed the GP-B spacecraft in orbit through his telescope as it passed through the constellation Pegasus, the location of our GP-B guide star, IM Pegasi. His 2004 photo is shown to the right, and you can read more about it in our GP-B Mission Update of 13 August 2004.

Recently, Mr. Sposetti sent us an email message noting that last year he sent proposals to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) for naming three minor planets he had discovered in 2000 to honor some of the people involved in the GP-B experiment. The MPC has officially accepted his proposals and now three GP-B principals—Leonard Schiff, Francis Everitt, and William Fairbank—have joined the long list of minor planet names.

You can view some of Mr. Sposetti's astronomical photographs on the Astronomical Image Data Archive (AIDA).

Below is information about the three minor planets that Mr. Sposetti discovered and named after GP-B principals. Click on the thumbnail images next to each planet description to view a JPL simulation of the orbits of the new minor planes.

We are grateful to Mr. Sposetti for providing us this information.

Planet Name: 61401 Schiff
Discovered 2000 Aug. 25 by S. Sposetti at Gnosca

In 1960 Leonard Schiff (1915-1971) proposed the use of orbiting gyroscopes to
check some of the effects of the theory of general relativity. His ideas led to
the Gravity Probe B experiment.

Epoch 2007 Apr. 10.0 TT = JDT 2454200.5 MPC
M 192.60223 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.23777035 Peri. 20.83970 +0.97842565 -0.20651045
T = 2454904.53133 JDT
a 2.5804627 Node 351.07177 +0.18360047 +0.88257436
q = 2.3046485
e 0.1068856 Incl. 2.23643 +0.09473179 +0.42239310
P 4.15 H 15.7 G 0.15 U 1
From 147 observations at 5 oppositions, 1992-2003, mean residual 0".60. Last observed on 2007 May 9. Perturbed ephemeris below based on elements from MPO 44796.

Planet Name: 61402 Franciseveritt
Discovered 2000 Aug. 25 by S. Sposetti at Gnosca.

Francis Everitt (b. 1934), a professor at Stanford University, is the principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B experiment.

Epoch 2007 Apr. 10.0 TT = JDT 2454200.5 MPC
M 253.04657 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.24468397 Peri. 336.67352 +0.68221154 +0.73102848
T = 2454637.60843 JDT
a 2.5316230 Node 336.33604 -0.66537433 +0.61302019
q = 2.1119281
e 0.1657810 Incl. 1.94080 -0.30309145 +0.29967249
P 4.03 H 16.7 G 0.15 U 1
From 71 observations at 5 oppositions, 1991-2003, mean residual 0".76.

Last observed on 2007 Apr. 19. Perturbed ephemeris below based on elements from MPO 44796.

Planet Name: 67235 Fairbank
Discovered 2000 Mar. 5 by S. Sposetti at Gnosca.

William Martin Fairbank (1917-1989), professor emeritus of physics at Stanford University, earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 1948. He taught at Amherst College and Duke University before joining the Stanford faculty in 1959. His research interests included superconductivity, gravity waves, individual quarks and monopoles.

Epoch 2007 Apr. 10.0 TT = JDT 2454200.5 MPC
M 131.43634 (2000.0) P Q
n 0.21397218 Peri. 71.22090 -0.38518721 +0.92277931
T = 2453586.23166 JDT
a 2.7684149 Node 176.07656 -0.89374004 -0.37019715
q = 2.5322102
e 0.0853213 Incl. 8.78330 -0.22991206 -0.10692247
P 4.61 H 16.2 G 0.15 U 1
From 60 observations at 5 oppositions, 1991-2002, mean residual 0".69.

Last observed on 2006 Nov. 16. Perturbed ephemeris below based on elements from MPO 48972.