James Whitney Young
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| 78577 JPL | September 10, 2002 |
| 84882 Table Mountain | February 1, 2003 |
| (90525) 2004 FB2 | March 17, 2004 |
| (95939) 2003 KL20 | May 30, 2003 |
| (114239) 2002 WN | November 21, 2002 |
| (115312) 2003 SP215 | September 19, 2003 |
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| (115485) 2003 UR19 | October 22, 2003 |
| (115891) 2003 VW2 | November 14, 2003 |
| (116446) 2004 AG | January 5, 2004 |
| (116903) 2004 GW | April 11, 2004 |
| (120038) 2003 BR1 | January 26, 2003 |
| (120174) 2003 KM3 | May 23, 2003 |
| (128297) 2003 XD11 | December 13, 2003 |
| (128621) 2004 RD | September 2, 2004 |
| (129066) 2004 VY28 | November 7, 2004 |
| (133280) 2003 SM17 | September 18, 2003 |
| (133527) 2003 TZ | October 5, 2003 |
| (134010) 2004 VW28 | November 7, 2004 |
| (142084) 2002 QU47 | August 26, 2002 |
| (143052) 2002 WY2 | November 24, 2002 |
| (144692) 2004 GC | April 9, 2004 |
| (145166) 2005 JL | May 3, 2005 |
| (147397) 2003 FO7 | March 30, 2003 |
| (147735) 2005 NE | July 2, 2005 |
| (147799) 2005 RA34 | September 15, 2005 |
| (149450) 2003 CE14 | February 6, 2003 |
| (149976) 2005 UO6 | October 24, 2005 |
| (150035) 2005 WO | November 20, 2005 |
| (152212) 2005 RG | September 1, 2005 |
| (152471) 2005 WE1 | November 21, 2005 |
James Whitney Young (January 24, 1941) was born in Portland, Oregon, and is currently the resident astronomer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Observatory (TMO) near Wrightwood, California having been with them for nearly 44 years. A very prolific asteroid observer of both physical properties and astrometric positions, he has discovered some 340 main belt asteroids in the last four years, as well as two NEOs, 2003 BV35 and 2003 RW11 and one extra-galactic supernova, SN 2005eg.
Young was the lead technical guide at the NASA exhibit of the Seattle World's Fair during 1962. It was there he was encouraged to apply for an 'assistant observer' and 'darkroom technician' position at the recently developed Table Mountain Observatory with its new 16-inch telescope which had just begun full operations in late 1962.
Along with Charles F. Capen, Jr. (TMO's first resident astronomer), Young carried out photographic synoptic patrols using specific colors (UV through IR) of Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Several technical reports were published of 'patrol' images of Mars during two Martian apparitions (1964-65 and 1966-67). The 1964 inferior conjunction of Venus was well observed from TMO. Color astrophotography was carefully investigated for planetary imaging using recently developed high speed color film emulsions.
With the newly (1966) installed 24-inch Cassegrain/Coudé telescope, Young began his asteroid observations with JPL astronomers, Ellis Miner and Alan Harris. Asteroid rotational rates became his speciality soon thereafter and by 1980, over 30 publications in Icarus with Alan Harris resulted in nearly half of the (then) known rotational rates of these small solar system bodies.
With the advent of powerful lasers, Young became involved with several projects that aimed lasers successfully, first at the Surveyor VII spacecraft on the Moon (1968), later as two laser ranging programs developed at JPL in the 1990s found their marks on low and high earth orbiting satellites, and finally to the Galileo spacecraft some 6 million kilometers from Earth. In each case, Young was responsible for aiming/tracking the 24-inch telescope on each successive target.
Young taught an astronomy extension course for the University of California at Riverside,California in 1969 and 1970 specifically for high school teachers and educators.
Other noteworthy projects Young was involved in included the 1969 installation of a large planetary spectrograph utilizing the Coudé focus of the 24-inch telescope. Spectroscoptic studies of the planet Venus were carried out by JPL astronomers, Andrew and Louise Young, with Young assisting with hypersentization of Eastman Kodak IR spectroscoptic glass plates. Young developed a new technique of cold storage for these extremely sensitive plates. His experimentation of 'clean' and properly washed plates, stored at −70 °C. for over two years, were without increased noise or loss of sensitivity. Previous experimenters could manage around a two month reliability.
In 1998, Young was asked to be an official observer for the 2-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), a joint venture of CalTech (California Institute of Technology) and the University of Massachusetts (UMass). Young carried out observations for this project at Mount Hopkins (south of Tucson, Arizona) and at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile until 2000, all the while maintaining his full Table Mountain Observatory responsibilities for JPL.
Late in 2002, Young began his current asteroid research, centering around NEOs and comets that have been discovered by several NASA funded NEO search teams such as NEAT, LINEAR, LONEOS, Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), and Spacewatch. With the use of Astrometrica software, Young has become an extremely prolific astrometrist for the Minor Planet Center (MPC) of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The director of the MPC, Dr. Brian G. Marsden has called Young the third most accurate and reliable observer in the world today. He has also co-authored and authored more than 1000 MPECs (Minor Planet Electronic Circulars) and IAUCs (International Astronomical Union Circulars) during the last 4 1/2 years. NASA has recently awarded Young a three-year grant to further his studies of NEOs and comets for JPL and the MPC.
Young frequently lectures about his work to youth, school, civic, and church groups around the western USA. He recently attended the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) General Assembly 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic. Young gave a presentation on his activities making astrometric observations of NEOs and comets at Table Mountain Observatory in the S236 Symposium, August 14.
Minor planet 2874 Jim Young is named in his honor.
