Jean Mueller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Mueller was the first woman hired as a telescope operator at Palomar Observatory. Here she stands in front of the historic Samuel Oschin telescope (more detail visible here).

Jean Mueller (born 1950) is an American astronomer.

Working at Palomar Observatory, she has discovered a total of 15 comets, including 7 periodic comets 120P/Mueller, 131P/Mueller, 136P/Mueller, 149P/Mueller, 173P/Mueller, as well as other not-yet-numbered periodic comets (1998 S1 LINEAR-Mueller and 1998 U2) and 8 non-periodic comets.

She has also discovered 12 asteroids, including the Apollo asteroids 4257 Ubasti, (9162) 1987 OA, (11500) 1989 UR, (12711) 1991 BB and the Amor asteroid (6569) 1993 MO, and is the co-discoverer of 2.

In 1983 Jean became the first woman to operate the historic 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory, and was the first woman hired as a telescope operator at Palomar Observatory in 1985.

The Palomar Sky Survey II (POSS II) got underway in August 1985, with the first of the 14" photographic glass plates being pulled off the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt Camera (now known as the The Samuel Oschin telescope). Jean Mueller was hired as the 48-inch Night Assistant in July of that year, and worked in the capacity as Observer/Telescope Operator for the duration. Jean took over 5500 photographic plates, and had the honor of setting the telescope and removing the very last plate from the historic Schmidt Camera on June 3, 2000, as well as discovering her very last supernova, 2000cm on that same night.

Jean spent hundreds of hours (in her spare time) scanning POSS II plates under high magnification looking for comets, fast-moving asteroids, and supernovae on an X/Y stage that held the 1mm thick glass plates. Mueller would sometimes mark over a hundred galaxies recorded on a single POSS II plate to hunt for supernova candidates. She would then compare these plates with the first Palomar Sky Survey (POSS I) of similar fields. It was during the years of the POSS II project that Jean Mueller made all of her discoveries.

As of 2006, she has also discovered 98 (and co-discovered 9) supernovas, and may yet surpass Fritz Zwicky's all-time record of 120 discoveries (plus 1 co-discovery) [1].

Minor Planet 4031 Mueller was named in honor of Jean Mueller for her astronomical discoveries. Discovered on February 12th, 1985 by Carolyn S. Shoemaker at Palomar Observatory with the 18" Schmidt Camera, it was originally designated 1985 CL.