7720 Lepaute | Discovered 1960 Sept. 26 by C. J. van Houten and I. van Houten-Groeneveld on Palomar Schmidt plates taken by T. Gehrels. |
Named after Nicole-Reine Lepaute (1723-1788), extraordinarily talented French mathematician. The astronomers Lalande and Clairaut sought her help for the computations needed to predict the 1759 return of comet 1P/Halley. Lepaute's computations for the annular eclipse of 1764 were used throughout Europe. Unfortunately, years of calculation left her nearly blind. |
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Reference: 19980211/MPCPages.arc | Last Updated: 2009-11-17 |