José Luis Ortiz Moreno facts for kids

José Luis Ortiz Moreno (born in 1967) is a Spanish astronomer. An astronomer is a scientist who studies stars, planets, and space. He used to be a leader in technology at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) in Spain.

He guides a team that studies minor planets at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Granada, Spain. Minor planets are small objects in space, like asteroids, that orbit the Sun. A special asteroid, 4436 Ortizmoreno, was named in his honor.

Discovery of Haumea

On July 29, 2005, Ortiz announced that his team had found a new object. This object was later named Haumea. Its first official name was 2003 EL₆₁. Haumea is now known as one of the few official dwarf planets in our Solar System. A dwarf planet is a celestial body that orbits the Sun and is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path of other debris.

There was some discussion about who should get credit for finding Haumea. Another group of scientists, led by Michael E. Brown at Caltech in the United States, had also been watching Haumea. They had been observing it for a longer time than Ortiz's team. However, they had not yet announced their discovery. They were waiting to figure out its exact orbital parameters (how it moves around the Sun).

Ortiz's team looked at some public records of Brown's observations. Soon after, Ortiz announced their discovery. This led to a disagreement. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the group that names planets and other space objects. The IAU decided not to give full credit to either team for the discovery. Instead, they listed the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain as the place where Haumea was found.

The IAU also chose the name Haumea, which was suggested by Brown's team. Ortiz's team had suggested the name Ataecina. José Luis Ortiz is mentioned in Michael Brown's book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming.

See also

In Spanish: José Luis Ortiz Moreno para niños