José Luis Ortiz Moreno
José Luis Ortiz Moreno is an astronomer, and former Vicedirector of Technology at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), Spain. He leads a team working on minor solar system objects at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Granada, Spain.
On July 29, 2005, Ortiz announced the discovery of the dwarf planet Haumea, which went by the temporary designation 2003 EL61.
Michael E. Brown and his team at Caltech had also had been observing Haumea, and for a longer period of time than Ortiz, but had withheld publication pending securing its orbital parameters. Brown initially supported Ortiz and his team being given credit for the discovery. However, he withdrew that support when it turned out that Ortiz had accessed Brown's public observation logs and research just before announcing the discovery. Ortiz maintained that he only did so to see if this was the same object that his team had been tracking. The IAU did not award credit to either party, but listed the Spanish observatory as the place of discovery, and accepted the Caltech suggested name of Haumea rather than Ortiz's Ataecina.
External links and references
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
- One Find, Two Astronomers: An Ethical Brawl, The New York Times, September 13, 2005
- Astronomer denies improper use of web data, NewScientist.com, September 21, 2005
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