Carl A. Wirtanen

Carl A. Wirtanen, born on November eleventh, nineteen ten, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was a distinguished American astronomer renowned for his discoveries of comets and minor planets. With Finnish ancestry, Wirtanen's passion for astronomy ignited at the tender age of twelve during a visit to a local observatory with his violin teacher, where he began grinding mirrors, setting the stage for his illustrious career.

In nineteen forty-one, Wirtanen joined the staff at Lick Observatory, where he would make significant contributions to the field of astronomy. His career was briefly interrupted by World War II, during which he served as a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, focusing on ballistics at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in the Mojave Desert. After the war, he returned to Lick Observatory, dedicating himself to his research until his retirement in nineteen seventy-eight.

Wirtanen is perhaps best known for discovering the periodic comet 46P/Wirtanen and eight asteroids, including the notable Apollo asteroid (29075) 1950 DA, which poses a potential impact threat to Earth in the year twenty-eight eighty. His work also included the discovery of two other Apollo asteroids: 1685 Toro and 1863 Antinous. A significant achievement in his career was the Shane Wirtanen Catalogue, published in nineteen fifty-four, which documented a count of galaxies based on the Shane–Wirtanen survey.

In recognition of his contributions, the asteroid 2044 Wirt, discovered by Wirtanen himself in nineteen fifty, was named in his honor on January first, nineteen eighty-one, a tribute proposed by his colleague Arnold Klemola. Wirtanen passed away in Santa Cruz, California, in nineteen ninety, following a lengthy illness, with his remains scattered at sea, leaving behind a legacy of astronomical discovery.