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Irish astronomer discovers second asteroid

IT was a chance sighting that has earned an amateur stargazer his place in the history books.

Long-time member of Astronomy Ireland and enthusiastic astronomer David Grennan was making use of the clear skies on Sunday, March 1, when he spotted a faint object in the constellation Leo. “It was one of the best nights in some time. A really good opportunity to let go at a serious search effort,” he says.

Although it was possible that the object was already a known asteroid the Raheny man had a hunch.

“The more I looked the more I began to think ‘just maybe’,” he said.

After submitting his report to the Minor Planet Centre, he received confirmation that the object (which he labelled as DG00002) was a new and undiscovered object, and was given the official identification of 2009 EN1.

Mr Grennan will get to name the new asteroid in the near future.

The asteroid is the second Mr Grennan has discovered and is over a quarter of a million times fainter than the human eye can see.

He discovered his first asteroid in October of last year, one of the first asteroids discovered from Ireland in 160 years.

His latest discovery is located approximately 373 million kilometres away from the Sun and about 224 million kilometres from Earth.

It is hurtling through space at a speed of about 18.7 kilometres per second relative to Earth and is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is about 3km-4km in diameter.

Mr Grennan said to have discovered just one asteroid was a dream come true.

Meanwhile, Astronomy Ireland has announced that the director of science and robotics at the European Space Agency, Prof David Southwood, is to give a lecture in Trinity College Dublin on March 16.

*Tickets are available online at www.astronomy.ie or by calling 01-8470777.

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