Eleanor “Glo” Helin, asteroid hunter

The JPL astronomer who found Golevka spent three decades searching for near-Earth asteroids.

Published 2026-10-23

Golevka is one of hundreds of asteroids credited to Eleanor Helin, one of the key figures in the early search for near-Earth objects.^[4][1]

From the Moon to near-Earth space

Helin studied geology at Occidental College and went to work at Caltech, where she and Bruce Murray started a Lunar Research Lab to prepare for lunar landing missions.^[4] Her studies of lunar craters raised interest in objects that come near Earth.^[4]

PCAS and INAS

In the early 1970s she started the Palomar Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey (PCAS), which found thousands of asteroids. In the 1980s, at JPL, she organized the International Near-Earth Asteroid Survey (INAS) to encourage worldwide interest.^[4]

NEAT

After nearly 25 years of photographic searching, she led the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) program using electronic sensors. NEAT ran from 1995 to 2007 as the first autonomous observing program — a computer ran the telescope overnight and sent data back each morning — and detected over 26,000 objects.^[4]

Legacy

Helin discovered or co-discovered 903 asteroids and several comets. She received NASA’s Exceptional Service Medal, and asteroid 3267 Glo is named after her nickname.^[4]

Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Golevka overview page.