Richard P. Binzel

Richard P. Binzel (* 1958 in Washington Court House, Ohio) is an American astronomer.

He is Professor of Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the author of Turin scale to assess the hazards of risky approaches near-Earth asteroids and comets whose effects in the event of an impact.

In the course of his work Richard Binzel discovered between 1987 and 1990 a total of three asteroids.

In recognition of his service to him in 1991 Harold C. Urey Prize of the American Astronomical Society was awarded. The asteroid ( 2873 ) Binzel was named after him.