A newly-discovered comet has been named after the surname of a
Chinese astronomer, Dr Zhao Haibin, the finder of the celestial
body.
Zhao, who leads an NEO (Near Earth Object) research team at the
Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences based in the eastern city of Nanjing, discovered the comet
close to the Cetus constellation in mid-September, a source with
the observatory said.
The orbit of the new comet, named "P/2007S1(ZHAO)", was found to
be an ellipse whose eccentricity is 0.344, and the comet's period
of revolution around the sun is 7.46 years.
Zhao reported his discovery to the Minor Planet Center of the
International Astronomical Union (IAU), which confirmed the new
comet after a careful analysis and comparison with the observations
of seven authoritative observatories in the world, including the
Lowell Observatory of the United States and the Schiaparelli
Observatory of Italy.
The new comet, the fifth one discovered by the Zijinshan
Astronomical Observatory, was detected at an observation station in
Xuyi County in the western part of eastern Jiangsu Province, the source said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2007)