Peter Kušnirák (born 1974) is a Slovak

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 ...

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 numb ...

, and a prolific photometrist of light-curves at

Ondřejov Observatory The Ondřejov Observatory (; cs, Observatoř Ondřejov) is the principal observatory of the Astronomical Institute () of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is located near the village of Ondřejov, southeast of Prague, Czech R ...

in the Czech Republic. He was married to Slovak astronomer

Ulrika Babiaková Ulrika Babiaková (3 April 1976 – 3 November 2002) was a Slovakia, Slovak astronomer and discoverer of minor planets from Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia. She is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery and co-discovery of 14 aster ...

with whom he discovered 123647 Tomáško, named after their son Tomáško. He was the principal observer to discover that the two main-belt asteroids 3073 Kursk and

5481 Kiuchi 5481 Kiuchi, provisional designation ', is a bright binary Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 15 February 1990, by Japanese astronomers Kin Endate and Kazuro Watanabe at ...

are in fact binary asteroids. In 1999, he discovered the Eunomian main-belt asteroid 24260 Kriváň, which he named after one Slovakia's national symbols, as well as

21656 Knuth Events January–March * January 5 – The First War of Villmergen, a civil war in the Confederation of Switzerland pitting its Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons against each other, breaks out but is resolved by March 7. The ...

and 20256 Adolfneckař, both located in the

Aquarius Aquarius may refer to: Astrology * Aquarius (astrology), an astrological sign * Age of Aquarius, a time period in the cycle of astrological ages Astronomy * Aquarius (constellation) * Aquarius in Chinese astronomy Arts and entertainment ...

constellation at the time. He is based out of numerous observatories in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, including the Ondřejov Observatory, and works solo or with partners. The

Flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

asteroid 17260 Kušnirák, discovered by the U.S.

LINEAR Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship (''function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear r ...

project at Lincoln Lab's ETS in 2000, is named in his honor ().

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link
list of references for light-curve photometry by Peter Kušnirák {{DEFAULTSORT:Kusnirak, Peter 1974 births 20th-century astronomers Discoverers of asteroids * Living people Slovak astronomers