8/23/2023 Debra Levey Larson
Written by Debra Levey Larson
An asteroid named "28751 Eggl" -- as in Professor Siegfried Eggl – can now be spotted on all international databases including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Horizons. The naming took place at the Asteroids, Comets, Meteors Conference this summer in Flagstaff, Arizona.
“It was a total surprise to me! I had no idea I was being nominated,” Eggl said.
The criteria for being nominated is holding a Ph.D. and making outstanding contributions to the field of planetary science.
Since joining the faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in early 2021, Eggl has invented the algorithm that will allow the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory to discover new Solar System objects; found a method to detect small moons around extrasolar planets using transit timing variations; and was a member of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test team which successfully deflected the orbit of an asteroid, then calculated and characterized the deflection.
Eggl is leading the Inner Solar System working group of the Rubin Solar System Science Collaboration as well as SatHub, the data-exchange node of the International Astronomical Union Centre for the Protection of the Dark Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, which was formed in 2022. At the IAU CPS Eggl works with aerospace industries and astronomers to ensure a peaceful co-existence of satellite constellations and ground-based astronomy. He is also a member of the Center for AstroPhysical Surveys in the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UIUC.
Where exactly is Eggl the asteroid? Its distance is measured in astronomical units – 1 au is approximately 93 million miles.
“Asteroid Eggl orbits the Sun at a distance of roughly 2.52 astronomical units or 234 million miles, or 2.52 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. Its distance to the Earth changes during the year between 3.52 au and 1.52 au,” said Eggl, the professor.
Siegfried Eggl now joins the prestigious company of those who have an asteroid named for them.
Asked if asteroid Eggl might collide with the Earth, Siegfried Eggl joked, “Luckily no. That particular asteroid is likely a few kilometers across. Such an asteroid could mean the end of our civilization if it were to hit the Earth. The International Astronomical Union only names asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, precisely to avoid tabloid headlines such as "Eggl about to end humanity.”