Robert Sutton Harrington
- Not to be confused with the older astronomer Robert G. Harrington, of the Palomar Observatory.
Robert Sutton Harrington (October 21, 1942 – January 23, 1993) was an American astronomer who worked at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO). Harrington was born near Newport News, Virginia. His father was an archaeologist. He was married to Betty-Jean Maycock in 1976, with two daughters, Amy and Ann.[1]
Harrington worked at the USNO. Another astronomer there, James W. Christy, consulted with him after discovering bulges in the images of Pluto, which turned out to be Pluto's satellite Charon.[1] For this reason, some consider Harrington to be a co-discoverer of Charon, although Christy usually gets sole credit. By the laws of physics, it is easy to determine the mass of a binary system based on its orbital period, so Harrington was the first to calculate the mass of the Pluto-Charon system, which was lower than even the lowest previous estimates of Pluto's mass.
Harrington became a believer in the existence of a Planet X beyond Pluto and undertook searches for it, unsuccessfully. In this he collaborated initially with T. C. (Tom) Van Flandern.[1] They were both "courted" by Zecharia Sitchin and his followers who believe in a planet Nibiru or Marduk, who cite the research of Harrington and van Flandern (but the Sitchin theories are considered pseudoscience by most scientists).[citation needed]
Harrington died of esophageal cancer in 1993.[1] The asteroid 3216 Harrington was named in his honour.
