Pamela Margaret Kilmartin is a New Zealand astronomer and a co-discoverer of minor planets and comets.
Career Kilmartin is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 41 asteroids, all in collaboration with her husband, the astronomer Alan C. Gilmore. Both astronomers are also active comet-hunters. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ) and co-director of its "Comets and Minor Planets" section. Kilmartin is one of eleven voting members of the International Astronomical Union's working group on Small Bodies Nomenclature, which is responsible for naming asteroids. The minor planet 3907 Kilmartin, discovered by Max Wolf in 1904, was named in her honour. Naming citation was published on 21 April 1989 (M.P.C. 14482). In 1983, the Eunomia asteroid 2537 Gilmore was already named after both, Alan and Pamela Gilmore. In May 2019, Kilmartin and her husband were honoured by New Zealand Post with a stamp in its New Zealand Space Pioneers series. In the 2025 King’s Birthday Honours, Kilmartin was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to astronomy.
List of discovered minor planets
References