Asteroid Named for S&T’s Editor in Chief, Diana Hannikainen – Sky & Telescope

The International Astronomical Union has named asteroid 50252 Dianahannikainen (2000 BE23) in honor of S&T’s newest editor in chief, Diana Hannikainen. This award acknowledges her experience in both professional and amateur astronomy and her dedication to serving both communities.

Born in Finland, Hannikainen spent her childhood in seven different countries. Her family followed her father around the world while he pursued his career as a third-generation diplomat. Her father played a role in her interest in astronomy, too: She grew up enjoying the incredible astrophotos she found in the pages of her father’s old copies of Sky & Telescope. She also recalls that while living in Brazil, her father would frequently take her out on trips to a ranch to go stargazing. One night a stranger arrived with a telescope, and Hannikainen saw Saturn’s rings for the first time. She was so stunned that she was seeing with her own eyes a planet that she’d only seen in pictures that she actually fell over backwards.

Following an undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she was an active member of the university’s astronomical society, Hannikainen returned to her Finnish roots, earning her PhD in high-energy astrophysics at the University of Helsinki. As she studied X-rays from microquasars, stellar-mass black holes that siphon gas from their companions, she also forged a collaboration with radio astronomers at the University of Sydney, Australia, as she examined the jets these black holes can make. Over the course of her career in professional astronomy she has (so far) published 177 refereed and nonrefereed papers, the most recent of which was published in 2023. In that time, she also mentored Masters and PhD students, a duty she took to heart.

In 2010, Hannikainen and her husband moved to Florida, where she decided it was time for a change. She took up teaching at the Bratt School and joined the Astronomical Society of the Palm Beaches, attending their monthly meetings and eventually writing their monthly observing newsletter. While determining what new path her career would take, she came across a job listing for an Observing Editor at Sky & Telescope. She applied immediately. When she was offered the job, she flew straight to Cambridge to join the S&T staff in 2017.

As S&T’s Observing Editor, Hannikainen has written and edited feature articles, magazine columns, and blogs. She takes particular joy in writing each month’s Sky At a Glance and Pro-Am Conjunction columns. She has also helped create S&T’s annual Skygazer’s Almanac and the formerly annual SkyWatch special issue and Observing Calendar.

Hannikainen relishes attending local astronomy club meetings and traveling to star parties to share the night sky with fellow stargazers. One can often happen across her at the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston’s monthly meeting and the Northeast Astronomy Forum. She also enjoys attending the annual Nebraska Star Party, where she was first introduced to the big, dark skies of the American Midwest.

After Peter Tyson announced his retirement last September, Hannikainen became S&T’s newest Editor in Chief. In her new position, she is looking to engage the magazine more deeply with both the amateur and professional astronomy communities, fostering additional collaborations. She remains dedicated to astronomers of every kind.

Steward Observatory’s Catalina Station discovered 50252 Dianahannikainen — a magnitude-15.9 asteroid of the inner main belt — on January 30, 2000, as part of the Catalina Sky Survey. It’s a member of the Flora asteroid family, a group of S-type asteroids that appears to be the remains of a much larger object that fragmented after a collision.

The newly named space rock joins a long list of S&T-inspired asteroids (including asteroids named both for staff and for contributing editors and photographers):

2157 Ashbrook

2925 Beatty

3031 Houston

3243 Skytel

3637 O’Meara

3706 Sinnott

3819 Robinson

3872 Akirafujii

3841 Dicicco

4673 Bortle

4726 Federer

5943 Lovi

6282 Edwelda

7065 Fredschaaf

7116 Mentall

7228 MacGillivray

8146 Jimbell

9983 Rickfienberg

9984 Gregbryant

10153 Goldman

10373 Macrobert

10596 Stevensimpson

10986 Govert

11132 Horne

12539 Chaikin

12780 Salamony

16037 Sheehan

17638 Sualan

20009 Joerao

20046 Seronik

21330 Alanwhitman

22410 Grinspoon

50252 Dianahannikainen

78434 Dyer

274860 Emilylakdawalla

276163 Tafreshi

323552 Trudybell

363115 Chuckwood

In her spare time, Hannikainen also enjoys amateur dramatics, tennis, and swimming. When she’s not using her binoculars to scope out deep-sky objects at night, she uses them to watch the birds perched in the trees behind her house during the day.