Jane Luu

Jane Luu is a Vietnamese-American astronomer who, with David Jewitt, discovered the first known Kuiper belt object beyond Pluto in 1992.

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15760 Albion: A trans-Neptunian object discovered in 1992, originally designated 1992 QB1 and later named Albion. Luu and David Jewitt found this first recognized Kuiper belt object beyond Pluto.
Charge-coupled device: A semiconductor image sensor that converts incoming light into electrical charge and transfers it for measurement. Sensitive digital imaging made faint outer Solar System bodies detectable.
Vietnamese diaspora: The communities of Vietnamese people and their descendants living outside Vietnam. Luu's life and career are part of the history of Vietnamese migration and achievement abroad.
Clyde Tombaugh: An American astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930 through photographic searches for a moving planet. Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto preceded Luu's identification of a small body beyond it by six decades.
1992 QB1: The provisional designation of the trans-Neptunian object later named 15760 Albion, discovered in 1992. This was the object Luu and Jewitt identified beyond Pluto.
Kuiper belt: A doughnut-shaped region of icy bodies beyond Neptune, extending through the outer Solar System. The discovery of 1992 QB1 provided the first clear evidence for this population.
Telescope: An instrument that collects and focuses electromagnetic radiation to make distant objects observable. Luu and Jewitt used telescopes to search for faint bodies beyond Neptune.
Astronomy: The scientific study of celestial objects, space, and the physical universe as a whole. Luu's research belongs to the broader science of observing and explaining the cosmos.
Gerard Kuiper: A Dutch-American astronomer whose work on the Solar System included predictions about populations of small bodies beyond Neptune. The belt later associated with Kuiper became observable through Luu's discovery.
Pluto: A dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, discovered in 1930 and reclassified from planet in 2006. The discovery came beyond Pluto, once thought to mark the Solar System's outer edge.