Indiana University, B.S. with Honors, Geology, 1984
Harvard University, Ph.D., Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1989
Asteroid Named in Honor of Kring
The science community, through the International Astronomical Union (IAU), honored Dr. David A. Kring and his work by assigning asteroid 8391 the formal name “Kring” in the year 2000. Electronic copies of the discovery images captured by the Spacewatch Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory are provided below, followed by the citation that was released by the IAU. Based on the absolute magnitude of the asteroid (H = 12.4), the diameter is estimated to be 10 to 15 kilometers. That is comparable in size to the asteroid that produced the Chicxulub impact crater and extinguished most life on Earth 65 million years ago.
In the discovery images above, one of the objects in the star field moves from the left panel to the right panel. That moving object is the asteroid Kring. The NASA-supported Jet Propulsion Laboratory continues to track the position of asteroid Kring as it orbits the Sun. To see the current position of asteroid Kring, go to the site for orbit diagrams and type in the word “Kring,” or go directly to the current orbital diagram for asteroid Kring.
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