Asteroids discovered: 1 [1]
676 Melitta 16 January 1909 MPC

Philibert Jacques Melotte (29 January 1880 – 30 March 1961) was a British astronomer whose parents emigrated from Belgium.[2]

In 1908 he discovered a moon of Jupiter, today known as Pasiphaë. It was simply designated "Jupiter VIII" and was not given its present name until 1975. The outer main-belt asteroid 676 Melitta, the only asteroid he discovered,[1] is named after the Attic form of the Greek Melissa, the bee, but its resemblance to the discoverer's name is not fortuitous.[3]

The conspicuous star cluster in the Coma Berenices constellation is commonly designated Mel 111 since it appeared in Melotte's 1915 catalogue of star clusters,[4] but not in Charles Messier's famous catalogue of deep sky objects or in the New General Catalogue since it was not proved to be a true cluster until 1938 by the astronomer R J Trumpler.[5]

Melotte was awarded the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1909. A collection of his papers is held at Cambridge University Library.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  2. ^ Hunter, A. (March 1962). "Obituary Notices: Philibert Jacques Melotte" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 3: 48. Bibcode:1962QJRAS...3...48. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  3. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(676) Melitta". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (676) Melitta. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 66. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_677. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
  4. ^ Melotte, P. J. "A Catalogue of Star Clusters shown on Franklin-Adams Chart Plates", MmRAS, 1915
  5. ^ The Coma Berenices star cluster (Melotte 111)

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