Sunday, February 22, 2009

Eleanor "Glo" Helin Passes

Sadly, Planetary defense is reporting that astronomer Eleanor "Glo" Helin has passed away:

"Eleanor "Glo" Helin passed away in late January. She was one of the pioneers of the search for Near Earth objects (NEOs) and established and led the NEAT Project at JPL. The NEAT Program discovered hundreds of NEOs, many comets, and 64 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs). Glo is survived by her son. If you would like to send him a note or card, his address is: Bruce Helin, 210 E. Elm St., Flagstaff, AZ 86001."

Dr. Helin performed the bulk of her work at Palomar Observatory. I will post a tribute here in the future, but readers may now wish to read this 1998 profile of her over at Women In Technology International and her entry at Wikipedia.

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