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Discovered 1995 Sept. 18 by Spacewatch at Kitt Peak.
Named in honor of William J. Merline (b. 1954), planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and a dedicated instrumentalist and observer. While a graduate student at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory he codiscovered periodic variations of the radial velocity of the star Arcturus. He made thousands of hours of observations for a search for planets orbiting other stars and a study of the stability of the solar spectrum. He is now a member of the imaging team of the Galileo mission, studying cratering records from spacecraft imagery. He is also conducting a search for satellites of minor planets using coronagraphic imaging with groundbased telescopes.
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