Erwin Schwab

Erwin Schwab (born 1964) is a German amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets, who works at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, near Darmstadt, Germany.^[2][3][4] He has discovered and co-discovered more than 80 asteroids^[1] from the Starkenburg (611), Tzec Maun (D25) and Taunus observatories (B01). As volunteer scientist for the European Space Agency (ESA) he recovered near-Earth objects and comets.^[5][6][7] From 2014 to 2021 he recovered 30 lost comets, which equates to about 25% of the worldwide proportion in that timespan.^[8][9] Using the Schmidt telescope at Calar Alto Observatory (Z84) to search for a lost comet he discovered in 2019 a unique variable star – the first known eclipsing stream-fed intermediate polar, cataloged as J1832.4-1627 (VSX-Id of AAVSO: 000-BNG-512)^{[10][11][12][13]}

Schwab was born in Heppenheim,^[3][14] where he started observing minor planets at the Starkenburg Observatory in 1981.^[15]

The Observatorio Astronómico de La Sagra in Spain has named the main-belt asteroid 185638 Erwinschwab in his honour.^[2][16][17]

One which he discovered is named after his parents, Elfriede and Erwin Schwab.^[18] Schwab has discovered asteroids at Starkenburg, Tzec Maun^[19] as well as at the Taunus Observatory.^[1] Some minor planet are named for German cities such as 204852 Frankfurt, 241418 Darmstadt, and 243440 Colonia (Cologne), while the Jupiter-trojans 192220 Oicles and 221917 Opites are named after figures from Greek mythology. He also co-discovered 2009 DM₄₅, an unnumbered Apollo asteroid and potentially hazardous object.^[20]

• Kleinplaneten-Entdeckungen in Deutschland (German). Epubli Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-741-80915-6.

• Erwin Schwab's Home Page