Richard P. Binzel

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Asteroids discovered: 3
11868 Kleinrichert October 2, 1989
13014 Hasslacher November 17, 1987
(29196) 1990 YY December 19, 1990

Richard (Rick) P. Binzel is a Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the inventor of the Torino Scale, a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets.

Binzel was awarded the H. C. Urey Prize by the American Astronomical Society in 1991. He also was awarded a MacVicar Faculty Fellowship [1] for teaching excellence at MIT in 1994.

Binzel was on the Planet Definition Committee [2] that developed the proposal to the International Astronomical Union's meeting in Prague in 2006 on whether Pluto should be considered a planet. Their proposal was revised during the meeting and Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet.

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