Quick Facts
Biography
Francesco Manca (born November 1966, in Milan, Italy) is an Italian amateur astronomer and discoverer of minor planets at the Sormano Astronomical Observatory in northern Italy.
Manca also performs follow-up astrometry of near-Earth objects (NEOs). He acquired research and observational experience on the NEOs at professional observatories in Arizona, United States. Non-observational work focuses on computations of orbit and close approaches of asteroids with the Earth (linked at Near Earth Object Program at Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and orbit and identifications of asteroids and comets.
He wrote many articles on specialistic magazines. Member of SIMCA (Italian: Società Italiana Meccanica Celeste e Astrodinamica). His professional activity concerns the application of measuring systems encoders installed on telescopes and Radio telescopes such as the VLT, LBT, E-ELT (European-Extremely Large Telescope), ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array), DAG (Turkish for Eastern Anatolia Observatory) and ASTRI (Astrophysics with mirrors at Italian Replicant Technology) or on space instruments as Solar Monitoring Observatory.
The Koronian asteroid 15460 Manca, discovered by Andrea Boattini and Luciano Tesi at San Marcello Pistoiese Observatory in 1998, is named in his honour.
List of discovered minor planets
| 9111 Matarazzo | 28 January 1997 | list |
| 9115 Battisti | 27 February 1997 | list |
| (9796) 1996 HW | 19 April 1996 | list |
| 10387 Bepicolombo | 18 October 1996 | list |
| 10605 Guidoni | 3 November 1996 | list |
| 10606 Crocco | 3 November 1996 | list |
| 11652 Johnbrownlee | 7 February 1997 | list |
| 12405 Nespoli | 15 September 1995 | list |
| 18542 Broglio | 29 December 1996 | list |
| 18556 Battiato | 7 February 1997 | list |
| 19318 Somanah | 2 December 1996 | list |
| 21289 Giacomel | 3 November 1996 | list |
| 26197 Bormio | 31 March 1997 | list |
| 27855 Giorgilli | 4 January 1995 | list |
| 32944 Gussalli | 19 November 1995 | list |
| 35334 Yarkovsky | 31 March 1997 | list |
| 37022 Robertovittori | 22 October 2000 | list |
| 39734 Marchiori | 14 December 1996 | list |
| 43956 Elidoro | 7 February 1997 | list |
| 43957 Invernizzi | 7 February 1997 | list |
| 48643 Allen-Beach | 20 October 1995 | list |
| 59087 Maccacaro | 15 November 1998 | list |
| 69961 Millosevich | 15 November 1998 | list |
| (79847) 1998 XY2 | 7 December 1998 | list |
| (96583) 1998 VG34 | 15 November 1998 | list |
| (100641) 1997 VO4 | 3 November 1997 | list |
| Co-discovery made with: A P. Sicoli B P. Chiavenna C V. Giuliani D A. Testa E M. Cavagna F G. Ventre | ||
|---|---|---|
Publications
- "Asteroid and Planet Close Encounters", Minor Planet Bulletin, ( 1999 F. Manca, P. Sicoli )
- "Monitoring Hazardous Objects", Proceedings of the Third Italian Meeting of Planetary Science, ( 2000 F. Manca, P. Sicoli )
- "Planetary Close Encounters", Proceedings of the Fourth Italian Meeting of Planetary Science, ( 2002 F. Manca, P. Sicoli )
- "Minor planet recovery: analysis and verification of data obtained by OrbFit and Edipo software", Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Meeting of Planetary Science, ( 2003 F. Manca, A. Testa, M. Carpino)
- "Identification of asteroids and comets: methods and results", Proceedings of the X National Conference on Planetary Science. (2011 F. Manca, P. Sicoli, and A. Testa)
- "Identification of asteroids and comets: update on methods and results". Proceedings of the XI National Conference on Planetary Science. (2013 F. Manca, A. Testa)
- "Close encounters among asteroids, comets, Earth-Moon system and inner planets: the cases of (99942) Apophis and Comet C/2013 A1 ". Proceedings of the XII Italian national workshop of planetary sciences. (2015 F. Manca, P. Sicoli, A. Testa)
MPECs, CBETs and IAUCs
- MPEC 2009-Y21: COMET P/2009 W1 (Hill)
- IAUC 9102: COMET P/2009 W1 (Hill)
- MPEC 1999-G10: NEA 1996 FR3
- MPEC 2009-H16: PHA 1990 UA = 2009 FJ44
- MPEC 2008-G29: PHA 2005 GY8 = 2008 FG5
- MPEC 2010-G51: PHA 1998 WB2 = 2010 GJ7
- MPEC 2012-H43: NEA 2001 QN142 = 2012 HP2
- MPEC 2012-S56: NEA 2005 CZ6 = 2012 SO30
- MPEC 2012-T47: NEA 2007 UZ1 = 2012 TC53
- MPEC 2012-T65: NEA 2010 JN33 = 2012 TU78
- MPEC 2012-U91: PHA 1999 VR6 = 2012 UV68
- MPEC 2013-F21: PHA 2001 TA2 = 2013 FH
- MPEC 2013-J68: NEA 2008 HJ3 = 2013 JV22
- MPEC 2013-T67: NEA 2010 VD1 = 2013 TZ68
- MPEC 2013-X11: NEA 1998 WP7 = 2013 WS45
- MPEC 2014-C52: NEA 1995 CR = 2014 CL13
- MPEC 2014-H85: NEA 2007 VE3 = 2014 HL132
- MPEC 2014-L08: NEA 2011 ME = 2014 KU86
- MPEC 2014-N14: NEA 2011 OK5 = 2014 MS41
- MPEC 2014-P59: NEA 2010 ST16 = 2014 OT392
- MPEC 2014-T15: NEA 2005 SY25 = 2014 SA324
- MPEC 2014-T16: NEA 2007 TF15 = 2014 SK304
- MPEC 2014-W47: NEA 2014 UC115 = 2014 WN7
- MPEC 2014-W137: PHA 2009 VZ = 2014 WA363
- MPEC 2014-X18: NEA 2003 YE13 = 2014 WW365
- MPEC 2015-DA43: NEA 2008 HA2 = 2015 DB54
- MPEC 2015-E38: NEA 2007 EF88 = 2015 ES
- MPEC 2015-H75: NEA 2000 AH205 = 2015 HS9
- MPEC 2015-H86: COMET P/2004 R1 = 2015 HC10 (McNaught)
- CBET 4094: COMET P/2015 HC_10 = P/2004 R1 (McNAUGHT)
- MPEC 2015-H106: NEA 2015 FO124 = 2015 DP224
- MPEC 2015-Q12: NEA 2001 QJ96 = 2015 PK229
- MPEC 2015-Q13: TRANS NEPTUNIAN OBJECT 2014 UM33 = 2010 TQ182
- MPEC 2015-R33: NEA 2000 SM10 = 2015 RF2
- MPEC 2015-X118: NEA 2010 VU198 = 2015 XR129
- MPEC 2015-X131: NEA 2012 XT111 = 2015 XQ169
- MPEC 2016-A145: NEA 2002 LE31 = 2016 AJ131
- MPEC 2016-E69: NEA 2005 EQ95 = 2016 EB28
- MPEC 2016-E94: NEA 2005 SC = 2016 EH56
- MPEC 2016-N47: NEA 2010 MH1 = 2016 NZ
- MPEC 2016-R162: NEA 2009 SY = 2016 RX33
- MPEC 2016-T106: NEA 2005 CE41 = 2016 TA19
- MPEC 2016-X73: NEA 2010 XN = 2016 XX17