| 5384 Changjiangcun | November 11, 1957 | MPC |
Zhang Jiaxiang (Chinese:张家祥; 30 October 1932 – 29 December 2019), also known asChia-Hsiang Chang, was a Chineseastronomer affiliated withPurple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and president of the Minor Planet Foundation at that observatory.
He discovered5384 Changjiangcun, an inner main-belt asteroid of theHungaria family at the Purple Mountain Observatory in 1957 named after the village nearZhangjiagang, China. It is his only discovery credited by theMinor Planet Center under the name "C.-H. Chang".[1][2]
Zhang Jiaxiang was born on 30 October 1932 inNanjing,Jiangsu, Republic of China. In 1951, he first joined the Purple Mountain Observatory as a technician, supervised by directorZhang Yuzhe.[3]
In 1957, Zhang Yuzhe and Zhang Jiaxiang published a paper discussing the orbit of artificial satellites. From 1965 to 1972, Zhang led the project of orbit determination of the first Chineseartificial satellite and thereafter the systematic studies of the orbit of Chinese synchronous satellite. His group discovered more than 150 newminor planets and fourcomets. In the 1990s, he accurately predicted a series of collision times between 19 comet nuclei and Jupiter, based on his self-established numerical model of theSolar System dynamics. He then served as the chief scientist for the construction of the Near Earth Object Telescope.[4]
In recognition of his contributions, theCenter for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian named the asteroid4760 Jia-xiang after him.[5]
Zhang died on 29 December 2019, aged 87.[3]
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