Pamela M. Kilmartin


see

Pamela Margaret Kilmartin is a New Zealand astronomer and a co-discoverer of minor planets and comets.

Career

Kilmartin is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 41 asteroids, all in collaboration with her husband, the astronomer Alan C. Gilmore. Both astronomers are also active comet-hunters. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand and co-director of its "Comets and Minor Planets" section. Kilmartin is one of eleven voting members of the International Astronomical Union's working group on Small Bodies Nomenclature, which is responsible for naming asteroids.
The minor planet 3907 Kilmartin, discovered by Max Wolf in 1904, was named in her honour. Naming citation was published on 21 April 1989. In 1983, the Eunomia asteroid 2537 Gilmore was already named after both, Alan and Pamela Gilmore.
In May 2019, Kilmartin and her husband were honoured by New Zealand Post with a stamp in its New Zealand Space Pioneers series.
In the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours, Kilmartin was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to astronomy.

List of discovered minor planets

2434 Bateson 27 May 1981
3087 Beatrice Tinsley 30 August 1981
3152 Jones 7 June 1983
3305 Ceadams 21 May 1985
3400 Aotearoa 2 April 1981
3521 Comrie 26 June 1982
3563 Canterbury 23 March 1985
3810 Aoraki 20 February 1985
4154 Rumsey 10 July 1985
4243 Nankivell 4 April 1981
4248 Ranald 23 April 1984
4409 Kissling 30 June 1989
4819 Gifford 24 May 1985
4837 Bickerton 30 June 1989
5207 Hearnshaw 15 April 1988