Denis Martinez, from Cebul, who today lives in Las Grotas, together with two “citizen scientists”, discovered a new asteroid from the so-called main belt, located between Mars and Jupiter. The new celestial body has been named in astronomical records as 2022 0X27, but its discoverers will give it the name of their choice once studies are completed and a description of the body found.
Martínez is an amateur astronomer and promoter of astrotourism. He began his work in Cipolletti, where he came to have an observatory on the meteorological station property. Later, he decided to move to the Atlantic Spa, where he continued his intense activities.
Recently, he received no less than recognition from the International Astronomical Research Collaboration (IASC), affiliated with Hardin-Simmons University, for his new asteroid discovery. In the certificate that was sent to him, there are also two other institutions involved in the search for asteroids and other celestial bodies. One is the famous NASA and the other is the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Hawaii.
The Interagency Standing Committee’s (IASC) asteroid search program is part of a larger endeavor that provides high-quality astronomical data to “citizen scientists” around the world, who can make original discoveries from materials and collaborate on practical astronomy.
The so-called Minor Planet Center (MPC), or Minor Planet Center, is participating in the initiative, which is the only existing global organization to receive and distribute position measurements of minor planets, comets and irregular natural satellites of the major planets. The entity is responsible for determining, designating and calculating the orbit of all these bodies. She works at the Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory, under the auspices of the World Astronomical Union.
Asteroid 2022 0X27 was discovered by Martínez and Damián Drago, also from Argentina, along with Deivy Castellano from Ecuador, who worked as a team. The discovery was made last year from four images of a point in the sky provided by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee. These are digital snapshots with software that recognizes already known asteroids and celestial bodies, to rule out errors.
The images are taken with some difference in time, allowing you to estimate, with patience and a good eye, the movement of an object that may not have been detected before. This is what Martinez’s team, which discovered the asteroid and relayed its discovery, did.
