José Luis Ortiz Moreno (born 1967) is a Spanish

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, and former vice director of Technology at the

Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía The Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (, IAA-CSIC) is a research institute funded by the High Council of Scientific Research of the Spanish government Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), and is located in Granada, And ...

(IAA),

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. He leads a team working on

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 ''minor ...

s at the

Sierra Nevada Observatory The Sierra Nevada Observatory (; OSN; code: J86) is located at Loma de Dilar (2896 m altitude) in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, in the province of Granada, Spain; established in 1981. It is operated and maintained by the Instituto de Astrof ...

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

, Spain. The main-belt asteroid 4436 Ortizmoreno was named in his honor.

Discovery of Haumea

On July 29, 2005, Ortiz announced the discovery of , provisional designation , one of the few officially recognized

dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...

s of the Solar System. This led to a controversy over who to credit for the discovery: Michael E. Brown and his team at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

had also been observing Haumea, and for a longer period of time than Ortiz, but had withheld publication pending securing its

orbital parameters Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same o ...

. Brown initially supported Ortiz and his team being given credit for the discovery, but withdrew that support when it turned out that Ortiz had accessed Brown's public observation logs and research just before announcing the discovery. Additional information was provided that showed that Ortiz and his team only started researching this object after looking at Brown's Caltech telescope files. After ignoring requests from Brown and only after a complaint was filed with the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU), did Ortiz finally respond to the accusation. Ortiz maintained that he only did so to see if this was the same object that his team had been tracking. The IAU did not award credit to either party, but listed the Spanish observatory as the place of discovery, and accepted the Caltech suggested name of ''Haumea'' rather than Ortiz's ''

Ataecina Ataegina (; ) was a goddess worshipped by the ancient Iberians, Lusitanians, and Celtiberians of the Iberian Peninsula. She is believed to have ruled the underworld. Names The deity's name is variously attested as ''Ataegina'', ''Ataecina'', ''A ...

.'' Ortiz is mentioned in Brown's memoir '' How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming''.

Footnotes

References

External links

Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía

The New York Times, September 13, 2005
''Astronomer denies improper use of web data''
NewScientist.com, September 21, 2005 21st-century Spanish astronomers * Haumea (dwarf planet) Planetary scientists Living people 1967 births {{Europe-astronomer-stub