Bruce A. McIntosh (October 30, 1929 – February 15, 2015) was a Canadian astrophysicist who worked at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. [1]
The NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (NRC-HIA) is the leading Canadian centre for astronomy and astrophysics.
Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec; the two form the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (NCR). As of 2016, Ottawa had a city population of 964,743 and a metropolitan population of 1,323,783 making it the fourth-largest city and the fifth-largest CMA in Canada.
Ontario is one of the 13 provinces and territories of Canada and is located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province accounting for 38.3 percent of the country's population, and is the second-largest province in total area. Ontario is fourth-largest jurisdiction in total area when the territories of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are included. It is home to the nation's capital city, Ottawa, and the nation's most populous city, Toronto, which is also Ontario's provincial capital.
His main area of research was meteors and asteroids. He was awarded the Czech Academy of Science gold medal for joint research on meteors with the Czechs. The Radar Meteor Survey he carried out with Peter Millman remains the benchmark to this day.
Asteroids are minor planets, especially of the inner Solar System. Larger asteroids have also been called planetoids. These terms have historically been applied to any astronomical object orbiting the Sun that did not resemble a planet-like disc and was not observed to have characteristics of an active comet such as a tail. As minor planets in the outer Solar System were discovered they were typically found to have volatile-rich surfaces similar to comets. As a result, they were often distinguished from objects found in the main asteroid belt. In this article, the term "asteroid" refers to the minor planets of the inner Solar System including those co-orbital with Jupiter.
Peter Mackenzie Millman was a Canadian astronomer. He worked at the Dunlap Observatory from 1933 until 1940. In early 1941 he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Air Force. In 1946 he joined the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa. He then transferred to the National Research Council in 1955.
A main belt asteroid was named after him in 1988. Its proper name is 5061 McIntosh (1988 DJ) and has an absolute magnitude of 12.4.
Absolute magnitude is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object, on a logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it were viewed from a distance of exactly 10 parsecs, with no extinction of its light due to absorption by interstellar dust particles. By hypothetically placing all objects at a standard reference distance from the observer, their luminosities can be directly compared on a magnitude scale. As with all astronomical magnitudes, the absolute magnitude can be specified for different wavelength ranges corresponding to specified filter bands or passbands; for stars a commonly quoted absolute magnitude is the absolute visual magnitude, which uses the visual (V) band of the spectrum. Absolute magnitudes are denoted by a capital M, with a subscript representing the filter band used for measurement, such as MV for absolute magnitude in the V band.
