Name Henry Holt | Role Astronomer | |
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Discovered (16485) 1990 RG2, (15748) 1991 RG25 Similar People Carolyn S Shoemaker, Eugene Merle Shoemaker, David H Levy, Robert A Heinlein, Paula Rego | ||
Henry E. Holt (born 1929) is an American astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets, who has worked as a planetary geologist at the United States Geological Survey and Northern Arizona University. In the 1960s he studied the photometric properties of the surface of the moon as part of the Surveyor and Apollo programs.
Between 1989 and 1993, he has discovered a total of 683 minor planets, and ranks among the Top 30 discoverers in MPC's list. His discoveries including the potentially hazardous asteroid 4581 Asclepius, the numbered asteroid that has made the closest approach to Earth at the time, as well as the near-Earth asteroid 4544 Xanthus, and the main-belt asteroid 6312 Robheinlein, which he named after famous science fiction author, Robert Heinlein. He is also a co-discoverer of periodic comets 121P/Shoemaker-Holt, 127P/Holt-Olmstead, and 128P/Shoemaker-Holt.
The Mars-crossing asteroid 4435 Holt was named in his honor.