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Eric Walter Elst

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Eric Walter Elst

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Belgian astronomer (1936–2022)

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Eric
Gender
male
Citizenship
Belgium
Place of birth
Mortsel
Place of death
Antwerp
Occupation
astronomer
Languages spoken
Dutch
Native language
Dutch
Field of work
astronomy
Show 5 more facts
date of birth
1936-00-00
name in native language
Eric Walter Elst
date of death
2022-00-00
Sources (3)

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Encyclopedic overview

Eric Walter Elst (30 November 1936 – 2 January 2022) was a Belgian astronomer at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle and a prolific discoverer of asteroids. As of 2026, the Minor Planet Center ranks him among the top 15 discoverers of minor planets with thousands of discoveries made at ESO's La Silla Observatory in northern Chile and at the Rozhen Observatory in Bulgaria during 1986–2005.

The minor planet 3936 Elst, a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, roughly 6 kilometers in diameter, was named in his honour.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Eric Walter Elst” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.