Freimut Börngen (; 17 October 1930 – 19 June 2021) was a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

and a prolific

discoverer of minor planets This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 nu ...

. A few sources give his first name wrongly as "Freimuth". The Minor Planet Center credits him as F. Borngen. He studied galaxies with the

Schmidt telescope Schmidt may refer to: * Schmidt (surname), including list of people with the surname * Schmidt (singer) (born 1990), German pop and jazz singer * Schmidt (lunar crater), a small lunar impact crater * Schmidt (Martian crater), a crater on Mars * ...

at the

Karl Schwarzschild Observatory The Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (german: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium) is a German astronomical observatory in Tautenburg near Jena, Thuringia. It was founded in 1960 as an affiliated institute of the former German Academy of Sciences at ...

Tautenburg Tautenburg is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany. It is home to the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory The Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (german: Karl-Schwarzschild-Observatorium) is a German astronomical observato ...

, Germany. In 1995 he retired, but continued to work as a freelancer for the observatory. As a by-product of his work, he discovered numerous asteroids (519, ). The research on asteroids had to be done in his spare time, as the search for small objects was not considered prestigious enough by the GDR research managers. During the GDR regime, Börngen restricted himself to politically neutral names for his asteroids, such as topics related to

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and lar ...

or famous scientists and composers. Examples include 2424 Tautenburg, 3181 Ahnert, 3245 Jensch, or 3941 Haydn. After the German reunification, he chose systematically historical, cultural, scientific and geographical namings, and at times honored amateur astronomers. Other names include references to resistance fighters against the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

suppression, or document a religious interest. Freimut Börngen achieved great reputation in the international scientific community for his human qualities and the well-substantiated choice of names. In 2006, he was awarded the '' Bundesverdienstkreuz am Bande'' (Cross of Merit on ribbon) by German Federal President

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the CDU (of which he is a member) and the CSU, as well as the ...

. The main-belt asteroid 3859 Börngen, discovered by astronomer

Edward Bowell Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London), is an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris. He was principal investigator of the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth ...

at the U.S.

Anderson Mesa Station Anderson Mesa Station is an astronomical observatory established in 1959 as a dark-sky observing site for Lowell Observatory. It is located at Anderson Mesa in Coconino County, Arizona, about 12 miles southeast of Lowell's main campus on Mars H ...

in 1987, was named in his honor. The naming and its citation was proposed and written by his colleague

Lutz Schmadel Lutz Dieter Schmadel (2 July 1942, in Berlin – 21 October 2016) was a German astronomer and a prolific discoverer of asteroids, who worked at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut (ARI) of the University of Heidelberg. His special interest was t ...

, and published on 20 February 1989 (). Freimut Börngen died on 19 June 2021 at the age of 90.

List of discovered minor planets

Freimut Börngen is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 538 numbered

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

s made between 1961 and 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borngen, Freimut 1930 births 2021 deaths Discoverers of asteroids * 20th-century German astronomers People from Halle (Saale) Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany