Cornelis Johannes van Houten | |
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| Born | (1920-02-18)18 February 1920 The Hague, Netherlands |
| Died | 24 August 2002(2002-08-24) (aged 82) |
| Nationality | Dutch |
| Other names | Kees van Houten |
| Spouse | Ingrid Groeneveld |
| Children | Karel van Houten |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Leiden Observatory Leiden University Palomar Observatory Yerkes Observatory |
Cornelis Johannes "Kees"van Houten (18 February 1920 – 24 August 2002) was aDutchastronomer.
Born inThe Hague, he spent his entire career atLeiden University except for a brief period (1954–1956) as a research assistant atYerkes Observatory.
He married fellow astronomer Ingrid Groeneveld (who becameIngrid van Houten-Groeneveld) and together they became interested inasteroids. They had one son, Karel.
In a jointly credited trio withTom Gehrels and Ingrid, he was an extremely prolific discoverer of many thousands of asteroids.[1] Gehrels did a sky survey using the48-inch Schmidt telescope atPalomar Observatory and shipped the plates to the van Houtens atLeiden Observatory, who analyzed them for new asteroids. The trio are jointly credited with several thousand discoveries. When theorbit of an asteroid is determined, it can be classified as anApollo asteroid (e.g.1862 Apollo), anAmor asteroid (e.g.1221 Amor) or aTrojan asteroid (e.g. 55701 Ukalegon).
He also studied theradial velocities of closebinary stars. He never retired, but remained active and published articles until his death, on asteroids andeclipsing binaries. The main-belt asteroid1673 van Houten was named in his honor.[3]
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