James Whitney Young


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James Whitney Young is an American astronomer who worked in the field of asteroid research. After nearly 47 years with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at their Table Mountain Facility, Young retired July 16, 2009.
He was a very prolific minor planet-observer of both physical properties and astrometric positions, and had discovered more than 250 asteroids since 2002, most of them from the main-belt, as well as several near-Earth objects, Mars-crossers and Jupiter trojans. He also discovered SN 2004eg, an extra-galactic supernova.
The Florian asteroid 2874 Jim Young was named in his honor.

Biography

James W. Young was born in Portland, Oregon and recently retired as the resident astronomer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Observatory near Wrightwood, California having been with them for 47 years.
Young was the lead technical guide at the NASA exhibit of the Seattle World's Fair during 1962. It was there he was encouraged to apply for an 'assistant observer' and 'darkroom technician' position at the recently developed Table Mountain Observatory with its new telescope which had just begun full operations in late 1962.

Table Mountain Observatory

Along with Charles F. Capen, Jr., Young carried out photographic synoptic patrols using specific colors of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Several technical reports were published of 'patrol' images of Mars during two Martian apparitions. The 1964 inferior conjunction of Venus was well observed from TMO. Color astrophotography was carefully investigated for planetary imaging using recently developed high speed color film emulsions.
With the newly installed Cassegrain/Coudé telescope, Young began his asteroid observations with JPL astronomers, Ellis D. Miner and Alan W. Harris. Asteroid rotational rates became his speciality soon thereafter and by 1980, over 30 publications in Icarus with Alan W. Harris resulted in nearly half of the known rotational rates of these small solar system bodies.
With the advent of powerful lasers, Young became involved with several projects that aimed lasers successfully, first at the Surveyor VII spacecraft on the Moon, later as two laser ranging programs developed at JPL in the 1990s found their marks on low and high earth orbiting satellites, and finally to the Galileo spacecraft some 6 million kilometers from Earth. In each case, Young was responsible for aiming/tracking the telescope on each successive target.

Hypersensitization

Other noteworthy projects Young was involved in included the 1969 installation of a large planetary spectrograph utilizing the Coudé focus of the telescope. Spectroscopic studies of the planet Venus were carried out by JPL astronomers, Andrew and Louise Young, with Jim Young assisting with hypersensitization of Eastman Kodak IR spectroscopic glass plates. Jim Young developed a new technique of cold storage for these extremely sensitive plates. His experimentation of 'clean' and properly washed plates, stored at −70 °C. for over two years, were without increased noise or loss of sensitivity. Previous experimenters could manage around a two-month reliability.

2-Micron All Sky Survey

In 1998, Young was asked to be an official observer for the 2-Micron All Sky Survey, a joint venture of Caltech and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Young carried out observations for this project at Mount Hopkins and at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile until 2000, all the while maintaining his full Table Mountain Observatory responsibilities for JPL.

Near Earth Objects

Late in 2002, Young began his last asteroid research, centering on NEOs and comets that have been discovered by several NASA funded NEO search teams such as NEAT, LINEAR, LONEOS, Catalina Sky Survey, and Spacewatch. With the use of Astrometrica software, Young become an extremely prolific astrometrist for the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The director of the MPC, Dr. Brian G. Marsden called Young the third most accurate and reliable observer in the world then. He also co-authored and authored over 1500 MPECs and IAUCs during these last 7 years at JPL. NASA awarded Young a three-year grant to further his studies of NEOs and comets for JPL and the MPC during the last years before his retirement.
In 2003 Young accepted a new responsibility as 'Astronomy Team Leader' at Table Mountain, and supervised a staff of three employees
in maintaining two optical telescopes, four CCD cameras, and a computer network of over 20
computers. Young maintained the optical performance of the telescopes, and the vacuum requirements for the CCD cameras. He also was
in charge of the telescope scheduling for all visiting astronomers and his staff. TMO recently placed their new on-line webpage for
all users as well as the public.

List of discovered minor planets

James Whitney Young is credited as "J. W. Young" by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 256 minor planets made between 2002 and 2009.
78577 JPL10 September 2002
84882 Table Mountain1 February 2003
90525 Karijanberg17 March 2004
95939 Thagnesland30 May 2003
114239 Bermarmi21 November 2002
115312 Whither19 September 2003
115477 Brantanica19 October 2003
22 October 2003
115891 Scottmichael14 November 2003
116446 McDermid5 January 2004
116903 Jeromeapt11 April 2004
120038 Franlainsher26 January 2003
120174 Jeffjenny23 May 2003
128297 Ashlevi13 December 2003
2 September 2004
7 November 2004
133280 Bryleen18 September 2003
133527 Fredearly5 October 2003
7 November 2004
142084 Jamesdaniel29 August 2002
24 November 2002
144692 Katemary9 April 2004
3 May 2005
147397 Bobhazel30 March 2003
2 July 2005

20 October 2003
14 March 2004
13 May 2004
16 October 2006
2 November 2002
25 March 2003
184064 Miner10 April 2004
185641 Judd5 March 2008
12 February 2004
23 October 2005
8 July 2005
23 October 2005
189944 Leblanc3 October 2003
10 November 2004
22 May 2003
7 October 2003
19 June 2004
21 March 2003
18 October 2003
198110 Heathrhoades17 September 2004
1 May 2006
201777 Deronda24 November 2003
30 September 2004
15 October 2003
12 February 2004

22 March 2003
14 September 2004
23 October 2005
5 September 2005
23 February 2006
21 January 2003
18 November 2003
5 August 2007
20 October 2003
19 January 2005
8 February 2006
2 October 2008
5 November 2002
13 September 2007
8 September 2004
2 July 2005
13 August 2005
1 November 2006
15 September 2005
19 November 2005
26 March 2003
20 May 2003
11 January 2004
11 August 2004
20 November 2005

15 May 2007
281445 Scotthowe28 September 2008
2 November 2002
24 November 2002
31 March 2003
29 September 2003
11 March 2004
24 March 2004
16 August 2004
2 September 2004
7 October 2004
12 August 2005
25 September 2005
11 February 2006
16 May 2007
12 March 2008
15 June 2008
23 January 2004
18 August 2004
13 August 2005
22 January 2006
7 February 2006
30 August 2006
301021 Sofiarodriguez23 September 2008
303265 Littmann8 September 2004

18 January 2005
19 January 2005
4 April 2008
14 February 2004
5 February 2003
25 March 2004
28 September 2008
4 November 2002
25 March 2003
29 June 2004
7 January 2009
6 February 2003
11 August 2004
11 January 2006
19 December 2005
1 September 2006
29 April 2006
1 May 2006
2 February 2008
21 July 2007
28 October 2008
11 January 2004
20 November 2005
3 November 2002
10 March 2007

Outreach

Young taught an astronomy extension course for the University of California, Riverside in 1969 and 1970 specifically for high school and junior college teachers and educators.
Young frequently lectures about his work to youth, school, civic, and church groups around the western USA. In 2006 he attended the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic. Young gave a presentation on his activities taking astrometric observations of NEOs and comets at Table Mountain Observatory in the S236 Symposium on August 14. Young, and his wife Karen, hold annual star-parties for their local communities as an
Outreach Program. The 13th annual event, was held on October 15, 2010. The event was attended by approximately 80 people, with many
school children, parents, and Boy Scouts present. With six telescopes, many from members of the High Desert Astronomical Society,
participants viewed the moon, and later when the clouds cleared in the east, a shadow transit of Io across Jupiter's cloud surface was seen.
Mr. Young spoke at the Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo, Hawaii on December 23, 2010. Young's presentation, entitled "The First Asteroid
Discovery to Near-Earth Hazards" featured Scott Manley's visualization titled, '1980-2010 Asteroid Discoveries', a six-minute
version. Still in Hilo, Mr. Young also gave
an evening fireside at the Hilo Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, entitled, "The Creation as Viewed by an Astronomer".
This same fireside was given in Dallas, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Medina, Ohio in May, 2011.
On the afternoon of June 5, Young held a viewing of the Venus transit from Wrightwood, California for the local community. Mr. Young's 6-inch telescope was used
with a solar filter for the 80-100 people who attended, as well as photography to record the event with a 2000mm telephoto lens.

Honors

The Florian asteroid 2874 Jim Young, discovered by Edward Bowell in 1982, was named in his honor.

Memberships and affiliations

Asteroid meanings