From campus to cosmos: UCalgary profs Phil Langill and Jeroen Stil get their names written in the stars

Two University of Calgary professors have had their names immortalized in space by having asteroids named after them.

Dr. Phil Langill, PhD’94, an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science and director of the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO), was the first to be nominated and have an asteroid named. He then nominated Dr. Jeroen Stil, PhD, also an associate professor in Physics and Astronomy, to also have an asteroid named.

“One goes about one’s business and does one’s job, and then one day a colleague pulls you aside and tells you, ‘You know what I did? I nominated you for an asteroid and, as of today, it is official,’” says Stil. “For me, it was a complete surprise.”

Academics collaborate over exploding stars 

The entire process began with David D. Balam, a Canadian astronomer at the University of Victoria who is credited with the discovery, or co-discovery, of more asteroids and minor planets than any Canadian in history, and he gets to name all of his discovered asteroids.

Balam and Langill had collaborated for several years with the Kaylie Green Memorial Telescope (KGMT) at the RAO. The telescope has a wide field of view perfect for searching for asteroids and comets. Langill didn’t have the time to put together the data analysis tools to use the images the telescope collects to search for asteroids but, with a few tweaks to his own data analysis ‘pipelines’ used with the Plaskett telescope, Balam had them ready to go.

Initially, Balam and Langill had been looking for exploding stars in the Andromeda galaxy, which is another function the KGMT is perfect for.

“On a clear night, I’d point the telescope at Andromeda, take a handful of images, and transfer the data to him to run through his pipeline of tools,” explains Langill.

Using this method, they were able to co-discover a nova with a research team out of Japan. 

After working together for years, Balam decided to name one of his discovered asteroids after Langill.

“I imagine he thought this crazy guy from UCalgary who is doing all this interesting stuff should have an asteroid named after him,” says Langill.

Who else should have an asteroid named after them?

Following the naming of (740495) Langill, Balam asked if there were any colleagues at the University of Calgary who should also have an asteroid named after them.

“I said, ‘Oh, for sure there are lots,’ and the first that came to mind was Jeroen,” recalls Langill.

Not knowing if the nomination would come to fruition and wanting it to be a surprise, Langill kept the process secret from Stil, which became challenging when he had to ask for his birthday to complete the nomination process.

“Phil had asked me for my date of birth, but I had no way to suspect this was what it was for,” says Stil.

Full circle moment is kind of weird and kind of cool

The naming of (611064) Jeroenstil was a full circle moment, as Stil had actually discovered an asteroid during his grad work back in the 1990’s while taking images of galaxies. However, he couldn’t claim the discovery because the data couldn’t confirm the orbit of the asteroid, which is required to confirm the discovery of any asteroid.

Both Langill and Stil acknowledge the large amount of follow-up work that is still required to discover new asteroids. The asteroids need to be studied by multiple people for years to confirm their orbit before they can be officially considered discovered.

“It’s kind of weird and kind of cool,” says Stil. “You don’t own an asteroid that’s named after you and you don’t have mineral rights, but it does create a strange personal connection to something out there.”

Stil says the asteroid is about one kilometre in diameter and will be 270 million kilometres from Earth on its closest approach.

Langill agrees with Stil, adding the asteroid is more of a hypothetical thing that exists due to the technology required to re-image the asteroid.

“Who knows, in future when people are exploring the solar system in their fancy little spacecrafts, they may use the asteroid as a stepping stone to get to something further away,” says Langill.

“It might make for a conversation piece or a coffee shop for future astronauts as they make their way through the solar system.”