David D. Balam is a
Canadian astronomer and a research associate with
University of Victoria's Department of
Physics and
Astronomy, in
Victoria,
British Columbia. Specializing in the search for
Near-Earth objects, Balam is one of the world's most prolific contributors to this research;
only two astronomers have made more such discoveries than Balam.
He is credited with the discovery or co-discovery of more than 600 asteroids, over a thousand extra-galactic
supernovae
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 a ...
,
and
nova
A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...
e in the
galaxy M31. Balam is also co-credited for the 1997 discovery of
Comet Zhu-Balam.
Among celestial bodies discovered by Balam are the asteroid
150145 Uvic
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* 15 (Buckcherry album), ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* 15 ...
, which he named for the University of Victoria,
and
197856 Tafelmusik, named for the
Baroque orchestra
A Baroque orchestra is an ensemble for mixed instruments that existed during the Baroque era of Western Classical music, commonly identified as 1600–1750. Baroque orchestras are typically much smaller, in terms of the number of performers, than t ...
in
Toronto. Currently, Balam conducts an optical transient survey (OTS) using the 1.82-m
Plaskett Telescope of the
National Research Council of Canada.
The asteroid
3749 Balam
3749 Balam is a stony Flora asteroid and rare trinary system orbiting in the inner regions of asteroid belt. It also forms a secured asteroid pair with sub-kilometer sized asteroid . ''Balam'' was discovered on 24 January 1982, by American as ...
is named in his honour, recognizing the fact that he developed most of the software for the university's
astrometric
Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way.
Histor ...
program on minor planets and comets.
List of discovered minor planets
References
Discoverers of asteroids
*
Living people
Academic staff of the University of Victoria
Year of birth missing (living people)
Scientists from British Columbia
20th-century Canadian astronomers
21st-century Canadian astronomers
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