Koval, Charles Thomas

In the 1960s, using the 48 "telescope of the Schmidt system at the Palomar Observatory, Charles Kowal participated in the compilation of 1, 5 and 6 volumes, compiled at that time in a catalog of galaxies and their clusters ^[4] , and also participated in the search for type Ia supernovae in other galaxies, during which he personally discovered 81 supernova ^[5] . These stars are used by astronomers as " standard candles ", objects that, by virtue of their characteristics, allow astronomers to accurately determine the distances to the galaxies in which they are located. These calculations are subsequently and made it possible to draw a conclusion about the expansion of the Universe ^[6] .

In 1973, California Institute of Technology astronomer Eleanor Helin and Eugene Shoemaker organized a PCAS program to search for and track previously unknown near-Earth objects using the 18 "Schmidt telescope at the Palomar Observatory. Although Charles Koval’s main work was supernova observation, he also participated in this program. since its 48 "telescope made it possible to track the weakest objects, inaccessible to the 18" telescope, which was used by Shoemaker and Helin ^[7] . It was during these observations that he discovered some of the first near-Earth asteroids, such as (2340) Hathor ( Atons ); (1981) Midas , (2063) Bacchus , (2102) Tantalum , (5660) 1974 MA ( Apollo ); (4596) 1981 QB and (4688) 1980 WF ( Cupids ); as well as two Trojan asteroids - (2241) Alcafoy and (2594) Akamant . Later, PCAS completely switched to the 48 "telescope, which had already been automated by then, and continued to work on it for several more years until June 1995 of the year.

In the 1970s, he began to study the solar system ^[8] and in the mid-70s, these studies culminated in the discovery of two new small satellites of Jupiter: Leda in 1974 and Femisto in 1975 ^[9] . Moreover, Femisto soon after the discovery was lost and only in 2000 was reopened.

From December 1976 to February 1985, Koval observed an area of ​​the sky with an area of ​​6400 square degrees in the ecliptic plane in order to search for distant slowly moving objects of the solar system ^[10] . however, for all the time of observation, he managed to find only one object outside the orbit of Jupiter ( (2060) Chiron in 1977), but with extremely unusual properties that made it possible to attribute it to both comets and asteroids. Fifteen years later, after its re-discovery, (2060) Chiron along with the asteroid (944) Hidalgo was recognized as a representative of a new class of objects called “ centaurs ”. Centaurs are objects with unstable orbits that are located between Jupiter and Neptune . They were probably ejected from the Kuiper belt by the gravity of Neptune or the dwarf planets of this belt. Chiron is the largest centaur and one of the few showing cometary activity. Koval is also the pioneer of 5 full - length short - period comets : 99P / Koval , 104P / Koval , 134P / Koval - Wavrova , 143P / Koval - Mrkos and 158P / Koval - LINEAR .

In 1980, Koval, examining the stellar maps compiled by Galileo Galilei in 1613, discovered on one of them the image of Neptune against the background of Jupiter, the discovery of which took place only two centuries later in 1846 ^[11] . For this discovery, Koval was awarded the special RR Newton Award for Scientific History ^[12] .

In 1985, Charles Koval moved to STScI , where he participated in the work with the Hubble Space Telescope. His book Asteroids: Their Nature and Utilization ( Asteroids: Their Nature and Use ) was published in 1988 and reprinted in 1996.

From 1996 until his retirement in 2006, he worked in the Laboratory of Applied Physics , where he participated in the development of software for the NEAR Shoemaker mission aimed at the asteroids (433) Eros .

Charles Koval died on November 28, 2011, at the age of 71. ^[13]

• Jerome Eugene Koja
• Guglielmo Regini
• David esher