Background
Ory was born in Develier, in the district of Delémont in the canton of Jura in Switzerland.
Ory was born in Develier, in the district of Delémont in the canton of Jura in Switzerland.
He attended school in Delémont, and at the cantonal school in Porrentruy, then studied at the University of Geneva, graduating in physics in 1990.
He is a teacher of physics at the cantonal school in Porrentruy, Switzerland. He trained as a scientific journalist at Cedos Société Anonyme in Carouge, qualifying in 1992, then undertook teacher training at the Institut pédagogique in Porrentruy, qualifying as a secondary school teacher in 1994, then becoming a physics teacher at the cantonal school in Porrentruy, a position which he continues to hold in 2012. A keen amateur astronomer, he joined the Jura Astronomical Society in 1990 and between 1993 and 1998 he was one of the seven member-builders of the Jura Astronomical Observatory.
lieutenant was on the nights of 26–27 and 27–28 August 2008 that Ory discovered what he thought was a near-earth asteroid, which he reported to the Minor Planet Center (MPC), Harvard.
At around 8:08 p.m. on August 28 he received notification from the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) that the object was in fact a periodic comet: the announcement ran, "An apparently asteroidal object discovered by Michel Ory (Delemont, Switzerland, on charge-coupled device images obtained with a 061-m f/39 reflector at Vicques. Discovery observation tabulated below), which was posted on the Minor Planet Center"s "NEOCP" webpage, has been found by other charge-coupled device observers to be cometary."
The comet was named P/2008 Q2 Ory after him, and the CBAT announcement brought congratulations from around the world.
The comet orbits the sun in an elliptical orbit with a period of 5.96 years. Michel Ory has made the following astronomical discoveries:
from the Jura Astronomical Observatory:
the periodic comet that bears his hame P/2008 Q2 Ory
over 234 asteroids
two supernovae
from the Tenagra II Observatory in Arizona:
11 asteroids
from the Sierra Stars Observatory, Markleeville, California:
2 asteroids.