An asteroid first discovered more than 20 years ago has now received a new name: Asteroid (700818) Pauldelaney.
The naming honours York University Professor Emeritus Paul Delaney, who was a faculty member in the Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science, for 35 years before retiring in 2021. Delaney was the director of the Allan I. Carswell Astronomical Observatory and the inaugural Carswell Chair for the Public Understanding of Astronomy at York University. His passion for teaching and community engagement led to him receiving the Sandford Fleming Medal for excellence in science communication and the Qilak Award for Astronomy Outreach and Communication.
The discoverer of the asteroid, Canadian astronomer Dave Balam, who is a former colleague and longtime collaborator of Delaney’s, led the naming effort.
“I've known Paul since his graduate student days at the University of Victoria,” said Balam, who is now based at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C. “Aside from my personal friendship with Paul, I decided to name the minor planet owing to his public outreach activities for the public understanding of astronomy and current astronomical events.”
Balam first discovered the asteroid (initially named 2003 OE34) on July 31, 2003, using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope located on Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii. The object is in a typical main asteroid belt orbit, located midway between the planets Mars and Jupiter, and orbiting the sun about every four and a half years. It’s considered small, likely a little less than one kilometre in diameter, and while no image exists, it’s probably irregularly shaped, like a potato.
The naming of small asteroids is overseen by a committee of the International Astronomical Union called the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). Namings become official after their publication in the WGSBN Bulletin, in which Delaney’s appears in the Nov. 4 issue.
Delaney joins a distinguished group of York University faculty members who have had asteroids named after them, including: Professor Michael Daly, Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering; Professor Patrick Hall, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science; the late Professor Emeritus Kim Innanen, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science; and the late Professor Richard Jarrell, Department of Science, Technology & Society, Faculty of Science.