Ellen Howell

Research

In 1977, Howell discovered asteroid 3598 Saucier using the Palomar Observatory. She named it after her grandmother, Agnes Elizabeth Saucier. In the same year, Schelte J. Bus, whom she later married, discovered asteroid 2735 Ellen; he named it after her. Howell discovered comet 88P/Howell at Palomar in 1981.

At Arecibo, Howell's research included radar observations of asteroids including triple asteroid (136617) 1994 CC and near-Earth asteroid 2014 HQ124. After her undergraduate discovery of comet 88P/Howell, Howell has also maintained her interests in the observation of comets, including making radar observations of comet 46P/Wirtanen in 2018 using the Arecibo Observatory, one of the last observations from Arecibo before its 2020 collapse.

Her work with OSIRIS-REx has included the discovery of water-related chemical compounds on asteroid 101955 Bennu, the target of the OSIRIS-REx mission. Howell also contributed to radar observations of the asteroid Bennu helping to determine different aspects of the asteroid such as shape and size.

Howell's current research is funded by the following grants: Combining thermal and radar observations of near-Earth asteroids, Water and OH on Primitive Bodies: Expanding the Frontier, Volatiles, Regolith and Thermal Investigations Consortium for Exploration and Science (VORTICES), and In the Eye of the Storm: Inner coma remote sensing of three Jupiter Family Comets.