2980 Cameron, provisionally designated , is a
main-belt asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
discovered by prolific American astronomer
Schelte Bus
Schelte John "Bobby" Bus (born 1956) is an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii), Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and deputy director of NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility ...
at
Siding Spring Observatory
Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia, part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU), incorporates the Anglo-Australian Telescope along with a coll ...
, Australia, on March 2, 1981. It orbits the Sun every 4.11 years at a distance of 2.1–3.0
AU.
The asteroid was named after astrophysicist and cosmogonist
Alastair G. W. Cameron (1925–2005), who was associate director for theoretical astrophysics at the
Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. He was an early advocate of the concepts of a turbulent accretion disk solar nebula, and of the origin of the Moon by a giant impact on the
proto-Earth. He also studied the nucleosynthesis in stars and supernovae, and the cosmic abundances of nuclides.
References
External links
Dictionary of Minor Planet Names Google books
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron
002980
Discoveries by Schelte J. Bus
Named minor planets
19810302