Erwin Schwab

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Erwin Schwab is a German amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets, who works at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, near Darmstadt, Germany. He has discovered and co-discovered more than 80 asteroids from the Starkenburg, Tzec Maun and Taunus observatories. As volunteer scientist for the European Space Agency he recovered near-Earth objects and comets. From 2014 to 2021 he recovered 30 lost comets, which equates to about 25% of the worldwide proportion in that timespan. Using the Schmidt telescope at Calar Alto Observatory to search for a lost comet he discovered in 2019 a unique variable star – the first known eclipsing stream-fed intermediate polar, cataloged as J1832.4-1627

Biography

Schwab was born in Heppenheim, where he started observing minor planets at the Starkenburg Observatory in 1981.

One which he discovered is named after his parents, Elfriede and Erwin Schwab. Schwab has discovered asteroids at Starkenburg, Tzec Maun as well as at the Taunus Observatory. Some minor planet are named for German cities such as 204852 Frankfurt, 241418 Darmstadt, and 243440 Colonia, while the Jupiter-trojans 192220 Oicles and 221917 Opites are named after figures from Greek mythology. He also co-discovered, an unnumbered Apollo asteroid and potentially hazardous object.

Kleinplaneten-Entdeckungen in Deutschland. Epubli Verlag, Berlin 2016,.