Paul Wiegert
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Paul Arnold Wiegert is a Canadian astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and professor at the University of Western Ontario.
Wiegert studies unusual orbits of both observed objects and theorised classes of objects, for example, one early paper considers not-known-to-exist planets orbiting the nearby Alpha Centauri star system, while later papers extend that case to more general planetary stability in general binary systems. This work in particular should be of interest to science fiction authors inventing universes.
Other areas of work include identifying the orbits of minor planets in the Solar System, which by virtue of their potential instability could realistically become major threats to civilization when one impacts on Earth again, as they have in the past. The Minor Planet Center credits him with the discovery of 80 numbered minor planets between 2003 and 2008. Wiegert was also involved in the discovery of 3753 Cruithne, Earth's first known Trojan asteroid.
He was also the a member of the team that identified 524522 Zoozve, as a quasi-satellite of Venus, in 2004, two years after the actual discovery of the object.
The outer main-belt asteroid 15068 Wiegert was named in his honor.
List of discovered minor planets
| 172996 Stooke | 25 May 2006 | |
| 199763 Davidgregory | 1 May 2006 | |
| 204786 Wehlau | 25 May 2006 | |
| 16 January 2005 | ||
| 233472 Moorcroft | 25 May 2006 | |
| 236616 Gray | 1 May 2006 | |
| 254422 Henrykent | 9 November 2004 | |
| 261930 Moorhead | 25 May 2006 | |
| 262536 Nowikow | 26 October 2006 | |
| 263251 Pandabear | 6 January 2008 | |
| 273230 de Bruyn | 1 May 2006 | |
| 273262 Cottam | 25 May 2006 | |
| 277883 Basu | 1 May 2006 | |
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 3 September 2005 | ||
| 27 August 2005 | ||
| 3 September 2005 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 26 October 2006 | ||
| 26 April 2004 | ||
| 2 February 2006 | ||
| 1 May 2006 | ||
| 304122 Ameliawehlau | 1 May 2006 | |
| 26 October 2006 | ||
| 6 January 2008 |
| 24 November 2005 | ||
| 26 October 2006 | ||
| 6 January 2008 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 1 May 2006 | ||
| 5 August 2005 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 26 October 2006 | ||
| 15 December 2004 | ||
| 14 September 2007 | ||
| 16 January 2005 | ||
| 12 September 2004 | ||
| 1 May 2006 | ||
| 31 July 2005 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 12 August 2004 | ||
| 6 January 2008 | ||
| 25 May 2006 | ||
| 1 November 2005 | ||
| 25 September 2003 | ||
| 1 May 2006 | ||
| 12 August 2004 | ||
| 16 January 2005 |