Paul Wiegert


Paul Arnold Wiegert is a Canadian astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and professor at the University of Western Ontario.
Wiegert studies unusual orbits of both observed objects and theorised classes of objects, for example, one early paper considers not-known-to-exist planets orbiting the nearby Alpha Centauri star system, while later papers extend that case to more general planetary stability in general binary systems. This work in particular should be of interest to science fiction authors inventing universes.
Other areas of work include identifying the orbits of minor planets in the Solar System, which by virtue of their potential instability could realistically become major threats to civilization when one impacts on Earth again, as they have in the past. The Minor Planet Center credits him with the discovery of 80 numbered minor planets between 2003 and 2008. Wiegert was also involved in the discovery of 3753 Cruithne, Earth's first known Trojan asteroid.
The outer main-belt asteroid 15068 Wiegert was named in his honor.

List of discovered minor planets

172996 Stooke25 May 2006
199763 Davidgregory1 May 2006
204786 Wehlau25 May 2006
16 January 2005
233472 Moorcroft25 May 2006
236616 Gray1 May 2006
254422 Henrykent9 November 2004 
261930 Moorhead25 May 2006
262536 Nowikow26 October 2006 
263251 Pandabear6 January 2008 
273230 de Bruyn1 May 2006
273262 Cottam25 May 2006
277883 Basu1 May 2006
25 May 2006
3 September 2005
27 August 2005
3 September 2005
25 May 2006
26 October 2006
26 April 2004
2 February 2006
1 May 2006
1 May 2006
26 October 2006
6 January 2008

24 November 2005
26 October 2006
6 January 2008
25 May 2006
25 May 2006
1 May 2006
5 August 2005
25 May 2006
25 May 2006
26 October 2006
15 December 2004
14 September 2007
16 January 2005
12 September 2004
1 May 2006
31 July 2005
25 May 2006
12 August 2004
6 January 2008
25 May 2006
1 November 2005
25 September 2003
1 May 2006
12 August 2004
16 January 2005