Jean Mueller (born 1950) is an American

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, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and discoverer of

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...

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, and a large number of

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

s at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.

Scientific career

In 1983, she became the first woman to operate the historic

Hooker telescope The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observat ...

Mt. Wilson Observatory The Mount Wilson Observatory (MWO) is an astronomical observatory in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The MWO is located on Mount Wilson, a peak in the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The observ ...

and was the first woman hired as a

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...

operator at Palomar Observatory in 1985. The

Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observat ...

(POSS II) got underway in August 1985, with the first of the 14" photographic glass plates being pulled off the Palomar's

Samuel Oschin telescope The Samuel Oschin telescope, also called the Oschin Schmidt, is a Schmidt camera at the Palomar Observatory in northern San Diego County, California. It consists of a 49.75-inch Schmidt corrector plate and a 72-inch (f/2.5) mirror. The instrument ...

(then called the 48-inch Schmidt Camera). Jean Mueller was hired as the ''48-Inch Night Assistant'' in July of that year, and worked in the capacity as observer and telescope operator for the duration. She took over 5500 photographic plates and had the honor of setting the telescope and removing the final plate from the historic

Schmidt Camera A Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. The design was invented by Bernhard Schmidt in 1930. Some notable e ...

on June 3, 2000, as well as discovering her last supernova, 2000cm, on that same night. Jean Mueller spent hundreds of hours (in her spare time) scanning POSS II plates under high magnification looking for comets, fast-moving asteroids, and supernovae on an X/Y stage that held the 1 mm thick glass plates. Mueller would sometimes mark over a hundred galaxies recorded on a single POSS II plate to hunt for supernova candidates. She would then compare these plates with the first

Palomar Sky Survey Palomar may refer to: Places * Any of several locations in San Diego County, California: ** Palomar Mountain ** Palomar Observatory, located on Palomar Mountain ** Palomar College in San Marcos, California ** Palomar Medical Center in Escondido, ...

(POSS I) of similar fields. It was during the years of the POSS II project that Jean Mueller made all of her discoveries.

Discoveries

Working at Palomar Observatory, she discovered a total of 15

s, including 7 periodic comets 120P/Mueller, 131P/Mueller,

136P/Mueller 136P/Mueller, also known as Mueller 3, is a periodic comet in the Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies c ...

, 149P/Mueller, 173P/Mueller, 188P/LINEAR-Mueller, 190P/Mueller, and 8 non-periodic comets. She is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 13 numbered minor planets during 1987–1993, including several

near-Earth objects A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...

such as the

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

asteroids 4257 Ubasti, 9162 Kwiila, and

12711 Tukmit 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1 ...

and the

Amor asteroid The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the archetype object 1221 Amor . The orbital perihelion of these objects is close to, but greater than, the orbital aphelion of Earth (i.e., the objects do not cross Earth's orbi ...

6569 Ondaatje. Mueller also discovered 107 (9 listed as co-discoveries)

Honors

The inner main-belt asteroid of the

Hungaria family The Hungaria asteroids, also known as the Hungaria group, are a dynamical group of asteroids in the asteroid belt which orbit the Sun with a semi-major axis (longest radius of an ellipse) between 1.78 and 2.00 astronomical units (AU). They are t ...

, 4031 Mueller, was named in honor of Jean Mueller for her astronomical discoveries. Discovered on February 12, 1985, by

Carolyn Shoemaker Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker (June 24, 1929 – August 13, 2021) was an American astronomer and a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She discovered 32 comets (then a record for the most by an individual) and more than 500 astero ...

at Palomar Observatory with the 18" Schmidt Camera, it was originally designated . The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 12 December 1989 ().

Affiliations

Jean Mueller is an Advisor of the Meade 4M Community who supports her outreach activities.

References

External links

The Second Palomar Sky Survey
1993 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mueller, Jean 1950 births 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American astronomers 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists American women astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets Discoverers of supernovae * Living people Palomar Observatory Scientists from California