Product Code Database
The following is a list of , astrophysics and other notable people who have made contributions to the field of astronomy. They may have won major prizes or awards, developed or invented widely used techniques or technologies within astronomy, or are directors of major observatories or heads of space-based telescope projects.
| 1987 | His work concentrated on three fields: the determination of the Hubble constant (H0) using the Tully–Fisher relation, the study of Carbon star, and the velocity distribution of those stars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
Aaronson was one of the first astronomers to attempt to image dark matter using infrared imaging. He imaged infrared halos of unknown matter around galaxies that could be dark matter. | |||
| 1983 | ||||
| Abetti mainly worked in positional astronomy and made many observations of minor planets, comets, and star occultations. He computed the orbit of 170 Maria, a Main belt asteroid. | ||||
| 1982 | ||||
| 1973 | ||||
| 1951 | ||||
| His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position of Neptune, using only mathematics. The calculations were made to explain discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of Kepler and Newton. | ||||
| 1956 | ||||
| 1110 | ||||
| Agrippa observed the occultation of a part of the Pleiades by the southernmost part of the Moon. | ||||
| 1989 | ||||
| 1954 | ||||
| 1892 | ||||
| 1951 | ||||
| 986 | ||||
| Al-Battānī's observations of the Sun led him to understand the nature of annular solar eclipses. He accurately calculated the Earth's obliquity (the angle between the planes of the equator and the ecliptic) | ||||
| 1952 | ||||
| 886 | ||||
| Discovered comets C/1959 Q1, C/1959 Q2, C/1963 F1 and C/1965 S2. | ||||
| 1964 | ||||
| 2003 | ||||
| One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union. | ||||
| 1959 | ||||
| Best known for his work on the mass limit for a white dwarf | ||||
| 1929 | ||||
| 1874 | ||||
| He made the first map of Mercury (although his maps were flawed due to incorrectly assuming that Mercury had synchronous rotation with the Sun) | ||||
| 1557 | ||||
| 1853 | ||||
| 1992 | ||||
| 1875 | ||||
| He presented the first known heliocentric model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe, with the Earth revolving around the Sun once a year and rotating about its axis once a day. | ||||
| 1695 | ||||
| 2013 | ||||
| 550 | Aryabhata correctly insisted that the Earth rotates about its axis daily, and that the apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the Earth. Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata. Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the rotation of the Earth referencing the fixed stars). | |||
| 1087 | ||||
| 1799 | ||||
| 1776 | ||||
| 1980 | ||||
| 1915 | ||||
| 1691 | ||||
| 2012 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| He specialized in solar spectroscopy and precisely mapped the distribution of magnetic fields over the Sun's surface. | ||||
| In 1953 he was the first to propose the idea of adaptive optics, a technique of precisely deforming a mirror in order to compensate for light distortion. | ||||
| 1916 | ||||
| 2005 | ||||
| 1991 | ||||
| 1934 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| 1918 | ||||
| 1793 | ||||
| 1844 | ||||
| 1643 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 1806 | ||||
| 1926 | ||||
| He is best known for his discovery of the high proper motion of Barnard's Star in 1916, which is named in his honor | ||||
| 929 | ||||
| 1934 | ||||
| 1625 | ||||
| 1965 | ||||
| Together with Johann Heinrich Mädler, he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars | ||||
| 1953 | ||||
| 680 | ||||
| 1185 | ||||
| The first to successfully calculate the distance to a star other than the Sun | ||||
| 1856 | ||||
| Discovering the Biermann battery, a process by which a weak seed magnetic field can be generated from zero initial conditions. He predicted the existence of the solar wind which in 1947 he dubbed "solar corpuscular radiation" | ||||
| 1932 | ||||
| 1048 | ||||
| Blaauw was closely involved in the founding of the European Southern Observatory, and was its general director from 1970 to 1975. From 1976 to 1979, he served as president of the International Astronomical Union. | ||||
| 1764 | ||||
| He was director of the Berlin Observatory from 1786 to 1825. There he published the Uranographia in 1801, a celestial atlas | ||||
| 2000 | ||||
| The discovery of , which are small, densely dark clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen silhouetted against brighter backgrounds. | ||||
| Was one of the first to present strong evidence of the existence of a stellar-mass black hole | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| The first director of Harvard College Observatory. | ||||
| In 1995, he discovered Comet Hale–Bopp. | ||||
| 1926 | ||||
| 1787 | ||||
| 1912 | ||||
| 1843 | ||||
| 1973 | ||||
| 1999 | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the Earth's axis (1728–1748). | ||||
| 2014 | ||||
| Tycho Brahe was the first to discover a super nova, which he falsely believed was a newly created star (in reality a dying star), which was one of the major reasons to abandon the view that the universe was static and eternal. | ||||
| 668 CE | ||||
| 1920 | ||||
| 1922 | ||||
| He is best known for his discovery of five comets, including the lost periodic comet, 5D/Brorsen | ||||
| 1966 | ||||
| His life's work was the study of the Moon's motion (lunar theory) and the compilation of extremely accurate lunar tables. | ||||
| Co-discoverer of multiple dwarf planets beyond Pluto, including Quaoar in 2002, Makemake in 2005 and Eris in 2006. This triggered a debate on the definition of a planet. | ||||
| 2000 | ||||
| Paul Brück | France | 1856 | 1922 | |
| 1694 | ||||
| 2020 | ||||
| 1996 | ||||
| Discovered the first radio pulsars, highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, in 1967. | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| 1921 | ||||
| He was one of the founders of the field of nuclear astrophysics, advanced the theory that the Moon was created by the giant impact of a Mars-sized object with the early Earth, and was an early adopter of computer technology in astrophysics. | ||||
| 1938 | ||||
| 1941 | ||||
| 1962 | ||||
| 1963 | ||||
| 1899 | ||||
| 1875 | ||||
| 1974 | ||||
| 1784 | ||||
| 1845 | ||||
| 1712 | ||||
| 1756 | ||||
| 1647 | ||||
| 1744 | ||||
| 1927 | ||||
| 1873 | ||||
| 1882 | ||||
| 1975 | ||||
| 1934 | ||||
| 1910 | ||||
| 2017 | ||||
| Discovered the largest of Pluto's moons, Charon | ||||
| 1950 | ||||
| 1919 | ||||
| 1937 | ||||
| 1903 | ||||
| 1543 | Copernicus discovered the heliocentric model of the Solar System. | |||
| ? | ||||
| In 1984, she was elected President of the British Astronomical Association, the first woman and the second-youngest person to hold the position. | ||||
| 1955 | ||||
| 2001 | ||||
| 1949 | ||||
| 1990 | ||||
| 1939 | ||||
| 1908 | ||||
| 1999 | ||||
| 1942 | ||||
| Cysat's most important work was on comets, and he observed the comet of 1618. He demonstrated at the same time that the trajectory of the comet was parabolic, not circular. | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| 1732 | ||||
| He developed several astronomical instruments to examine the regularity of the rotation of the Earth. Among his discoveries was an acceleration of the rotation of the Earth during periods of intense solar activity occurring in 11-year cycles correlated with an increase in earthquakes. | ||||
| 1875 | ||||
| 1912 | ||||
| Tamara Davis | Australia | |||
| 1519 | ||||
| He made extensive drawings of Mars during its 1864 opposition. In 1867, Richard Anthony Proctor made a map of Mars based on these drawings. | ||||
| In 1958, he became the first president of the Asociación Argentina de Astronomía. | ||||
| Discovered the asteroid 230 Athamantis. | ||||
| Was responsible for the discovery of the supernova SN 1997D. She also contributed to the discovery of blue blobs, known as 'star orphanages' due to their role in forming stars outside of galaxies. And in 2013, she was involved in the discovery of the largest spiral galaxy in the universe, the Condor Galaxy NGC 6872. | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| 1892 | ||||
| 1822 | ||||
| 1872 | ||||
| 1955 | ||||
| 1931 | ||||
| 1948 | ||||
| 1986 | ||||
| 1995 | ||||
| 1997 | ||||
| 2023 | ||||
| He was first to postulate the "dark night sky paradox". | ||||
| 1978 | ||||
| Pioneered work in solar flares at the University of Michigan. | ||||
| Donati was a pioneer in the spectroscopic study of the stars, the Sun, and comets | ||||
| 1882 | ||||
| 1926 | ||||
| 1494 | ||||
| 1959 | ||||
| 1918 | ||||
| 1967 | ||||
| 1940 | ||||
| 1848 | ||||
| 1981 | ||||
| 1939 | ||||
| Around 1920, he foreshadowed the discovery and mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars is named in his honour. | ||||
| The creation of the Indiana Asteroid Program, a photographic program to locate asteroids that were "lost" when systematic observations were interrupted by World War II. | ||||
| He is best known for a seminal 1962 paper with Donald Lynden-Bell and Allan Sandage which suggested for the first time that the Milky Way Galaxy had collapsed out of a gas cloud. | ||||
| 1955 | ||||
| Built the Eise Eisinga Planetarium in his house in Franeker, Dutch Republic, the oldest functioning planetarium in the world. | ||||
| 2022 | ||||
| 1865 | ||||
| 194 BC | ||||
| 1942 | ||||
| 1954 | ||||
| BC | ||||
| 2022 | ||||
| 1617 | ||||
| A modern era discoverer of sunspots in 1611 | ||||
| Catalogued over 300 stars from his observatory in South Africa. | ||||
| 870 | ||||
| 1902 | ||||
| 2008 | ||||
| 1927 | ||||
| 1867 | ||||
| 1964 | ||||
| 1981 | ||||
| Co-authored more than 300 papers on dwarf stars and exoplanets. In two papers with Jeff Valenti, she quantified a correlation between the chemical composition of host stars and the formation of orbiting gas giant planets | ||||
| 1925 | ||||
| 1962 | ||||
| 1719 | ||||
| 1835 | ||||
| 1911 | ||||
| 1921 | ||||
| 1940 | ||||
| He is known for his theoretical and experimental research into nuclear reactions within stars and the energy elements produced in the process. Winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. | ||||
| 1944 | ||||
| Designed the heliometer used successfully to calculate the distance to a star, other than the Sun, for the first time. | ||||
| 2000 | ||||
| 1935 | ||||
| 2003 | ||||
| 2016 | ||||
| Gan De, together with Shi Shen compiled China's first star catalogue | ||||
| 1920 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| Was the first person to view the planet Neptune and know what he was looking at. | ||||
| 1968 | ||||
| 1855 | ||||
| Pioneered the first photometric system of asteroids in the 1950s, and wavelength dependence of polarization of stars and planets in the 1960s | ||||
| 2017 | Gamma-ray astronomy; led Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory; led Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. | |||
| Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid down the foundations of X-ray astronomy | ||||
| 1938 | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| 1914 | ||||
| Determined that the average color of the vast universe is Cosmic Latte. | ||||
| 2004 | ||||
| 1987 | ||||
| In 1820, Goldschmidt discovered shadow bands in total solar eclipses | ||||
| 1934 | ||||
| 1786 | ||||
| 9th century | ||||
| 1962 | ||||
| 1896 | ||||
| 1907 | ||||
| 1771 | ||||
| 2002 | ||||
| 1994 | ||||
| 2020 | ||||
| 1316 | ||||
| 1979 | ||||
| co-discovered Comet Hale–Bopp | ||||
| 1938 | ||||
| 1907 | ||||
| 1742 | ||||
| 1874 | ||||
| Was a part of the so-called 'celestial police' group, which made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. | ||||
| his 1609 drawings of his observations of the Moon have been noted as the first recorded telescopic observations ever made | ||||
| Haro was influential in the development of modern observational astronomy in Mexico. Internationally, he is best known for his contribution to the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects. | ||||
| He discovered or co-discovered a number of comets, including periodic comets 43P/Wolf–Harrington and 51P/Harrington | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| 1892 | ||||
| 1963 | ||||
| 2018 | ||||
| 1949 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 1983 | ||||
| 2006 | ||||
| 1971 | ||||
| 2009 | ||||
| 1792 | ||||
| 1866 | ||||
| noted for being the first person to measure the distance to Alpha Centauri | ||||
| 1905 | ||||
| 1903 | ||||
| 1136 | ||||
| best known for his contribution to the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects | ||||
| 1848 | ||||
| Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. | ||||
| He developed a classification system for stars to divide them by spectral type, stage in their development, and luminosity, the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. | ||||
| 1687 | ||||
| won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars. | ||||
| 1914 | ||||
| 1895 | ||||
| Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. He was the first whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon survive. | ||||
| 1943 | ||||
| 1945 | ||||
| 1890 | ||||
| 2003 | ||||
| 1968 | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| 1864 | ||||
| 1990 | ||||
| First person to demonstrate the Moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth. He predicted, observed and recorded the 1639 transit of Venus. | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| Howell was fundamental in the development of CCD astronomy especially CCD photometry of faint sources. He was the Project Scientist for the NASA Kepler and K2 Exoplanet missions. | ||||
| 2001 | ||||
| Hubble proved that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He provided evidence for Hubble–Lemaître law, the fact that the universe is ever expanding. | ||||
| 1910 | ||||
| 2000 | ||||
| 1972 | ||||
| 1854 | ||||
| Discovered the largest moon of Saturn, Titan | ||||
| 2002 | ||||
| 1986 | ||||
| 415 | ||||
| 1873 | ||||
| 1933 | ||||
| 2008 | ||||
| 2013 | ||||
| 1884 | ||||
| 1811 | ||||
| 1988 | ||||
| He is part of the LIGO team made the first observation of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger in 2015. | ||||
| 1907 | ||||
| 1946 | ||||
| 1975 | ||||
| 1970 | ||||
| 1726 | ||||
| 1973 | ||||
| 2014 | ||||
| Norio directed the construction of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory and the Subaru Telescope. He was also the director of the International Astronomical Union(IAU) from 2012 to 2015. | ||||
| 1962 | ||||
| 1995 | ||||
| 2003 | ||||
| 1922 | ||||
| 1429 | ||||
| 2003 | ||||
| 1900 | ||||
| 1920 | ||||
| 1630 | ||||
| 1131 | ||||
| Discovered that the axial tilt of the Earth is not constant. | ||||
| 850 | ||||
| 1943 | ||||
| 1720 | ||||
| 1895 | ||||
| 1884 | ||||
| 1919 | ||||
| 2020 | ||||
| 2017 | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| 2011 | ||||
| Pioneering work on Cepheid variables, stellar rotation, novae, and the chemical evolution of the Milky Way | ||||
| 1994 | ||||
| 1927 | ||||
| 1943 | ||||
| The namesake of the Kuiper belt, a region of minor planets beyond Neptune. | ||||
| 1989 | ||||
| Qushji improved on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's planetary model and presented an alternative planetary model for Mercury. | ||||
| 1762 | ||||
| 1813 | ||||
| Calculated the distance from the moon to Earth | ||||
| 1777 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 1906 | ||||
| 1827 | ||||
| 1880 | ||||
| 1900 | ||||
| Discovered that Cepheid variable stars pulsated at a rate relative to the luminosity. This discovery made it possible to determine the distance to other galaxies by comparing the distance to Cepheids in our galaxy measured by Parallax and Spectroscopy and then applying the results to cepheids in other galaxies. This would eventually lead to the discovery that the Universe is expanding. | ||||
| 1792 | ||||
| Being the first the theorize that the Universe is ever expanding. The namesake of the Hubble–Lemaître law | ||||
| 1799 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| 1985 | ||||
| 1993 | ||||
| Studied the rotation of Galaxies. Her research provided evidence for the discovery of Dark matter. | ||||
| 1907 | ||||
| 1957 | ||||
| Won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars. | ||||
| 1883 | ||||
| 1346 | He was a theoretical astronomer and religious scholar who created original and sophisticated astronomical theories of time and place, and under circumstances that have long been considered devoid of original scientific research. | |||
| 1996 | ||||
| 1956 | Best known for developing the Saha ionization equation, which has been instrumental in understanding the physical and chemical properties of stars. | |||
| 2008 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 1923 | ||||
| 2012 | ||||
| 1958 | ||||
| 1910 | ||||
| 1943 | ||||
| 1935 | ||||
| Proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding. | ||||
| 2022 | ||||
| 2001 | ||||
| Was a part of the so-called 'celestial police' group, which made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. | ||||
| 1921 | ||||
| 1850 | ||||
| 1875 | ||||
| 1916 | ||||
| 1997 | ||||
| 1964 | ||||
| 1964 | ||||
| 1918 | ||||
| One of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the Sun is a star. | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| He is best known for his 1943 research paper on high-excitation line emission from the centers of some spiral galaxies, which are named Seyfert galaxies after him. | ||||
| 1956 | ||||
| 1956 | ||||
| 1972 | ||||
| 1855 | ||||
| 1095 | ||||
| Together with Gan De, compiled China's first star catalogue. | ||||
| 1715 | ||||
| 1938 | ||||
| 1311 | ||||
| 1985 | ||||
| 2010 | ||||
| 2021 | ||||
| 1997 | ||||
| De Sitter made major contributions to the field of physical cosmology. He co-authored a paper with Albert Einstein in 1932 in which they discussed the implications of cosmological data for the curvature of the universe. | ||||
| 1990 | ||||
| 1952 | ||||
| 1969 | ||||
| 1975 | ||||
| 2001 | ||||
| 1865 | ||||
| 1626 | ||||
| 1872 | ||||
| 1867 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| 1997 | ||||
| 1895 | ||||
| 1955 | ||||
| 1966 | ||||
| 1951 | ||||
| 1870 | ||||
| In 1873, Stephan was the first person to attempt to measure the angular diameter of a star using interferometry | ||||
| 1897 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| He found that the chemical composition of stars was very much different than previously assumed. In the late 1930s, he found the relative abundance of hydrogen to be nearly 70%, and helium to be about 27%. | ||||
| 1920 | ||||
| 1920 | ||||
| 1963 | ||||
| 1101 | ||||
| 1913 | ||||
| 1917 | ||||
| 2018 | ||||
| Pierre Tardi | France | 1897 | 1972 | |
| Research in extra-terristrial light. Came up with the name Brown dwarfs for substellar entities. | ||||
| 1916 | ||||
| 1889 | ||||
| 901 | ||||
| 1910 | ||||
| 1887 | ||||
| 2020 | ||||
| 1908 | ||||
| 1895 | ||||
| 1981 | ||||
| 1896 | ||||
| 1796 | ||||
| Discovered Pluto as well as numerous asteroids | ||||
| 2006 | ||||
| 1997 | ||||
| 2015 | ||||
| Co-discoverer of multiple dwarf planets beyond Pluto, including Quaoar in 2002, Makemake in 2005 and Eris in 2006. This triggered a debate on the definition of a planet. | ||||
| 1956 | ||||
| Coined the term Parsec, a very large unit of distance to measure the distance to objects outside the solar system | ||||
| In astronomy, al-Tusi created very accurate tables of planetary motion, an updated planetary model, and critiques of Ptolemaic astronomy. | ||||
| 1923 | ||||
| 1449 | ||||
| 1795 | ||||
| 1995 | ||||
| 2012 | ||||
| 1266 | ||||
| 1971 | ||||
| 1867 | ||||
| 2006 | ||||
| 1974 | ||||
| 2000 | ||||
| 1995 | ||||
| 1639 | ||||
| 1923 | ||||
| 1947 | ||||
| 2002 | ||||
| 1960 | ||||
| 1995 | ||||
| 2014 | ||||
| Very's most important work was in measuring the temperatures of the surfaces of the Moon and other planets using a bolometer. | ||||
| 1883 | ||||
| She is the first woman to be obtain a scientific degree in astronomy in Denmark, known for her accurate computation of orbits of minor planets and comets. | ||||
| 1907 | ||||
| 1864 | ||||
| 1905 | ||||
| His best known work is probably a catalog with five lists of stars titled Dwarf M Stars Found Spectrophotometrically. This work was important because it was the first list of nearby stars identified not by their motions in the sky, but by their intrinsic, spectroscopic, characteristics. | ||||
| 1975 | ||||
| 1990 | ||||
| 997/998 | ||||
| 1135 | ||||
| 2021 | ||||
| 1798 | ||||
| 1880 | ||||
| 1748 | ||||
| 1885 | ||||
| 1930 | ||||
| 1279 | ||||
| 2007 | ||||
| 1667 | ||||
| 2012 | ||||
| 2008 | ||||
| 1859 | ||||
| 1831 | ||||
| 2006 | ||||
| Popularizing the term 'wormholes', theoretical holes in spacetime | ||||
| 2004 | ||||
| 2002 | ||||
| 1921 | ||||
| 2014 | ||||
| 1994 | ||||
| Author of the Astronomia Britannica (published in 1669). | ||||
| 1779 | ||||
| 1897 | ||||
| discovered periodic comet 46P/Wirtanen, as well as eight asteroids | ||||
| 1946 | ||||
| 1932 | ||||
| Co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. | ||||
| 1986 | ||||
| He was the first to describe the shape of the Milky Way | ||||
| 1959 | ||||
| 727 | ||||
| 1961 | ||||
| 1908 | ||||
| The founder of the so-called 'celestial police', an informal group of astronomers looking for additional planets after the discovery of Uranus. The Celestial Police made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of the asteroid belt and many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. | ||||
| His mapping of stars led to breakthroughs in navigation. | ||||
| Zeldovich played a key role in developing the theory of black hole evaporation due to Hawking radiation. | ||||
| 139 | ||||
| 1986 | ||||
| 1988 | ||||
| 500 | ||||
| Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to discover the existence of a gravitational anomaly, which he termed dark matter. | ||||
| Coined the term "Quasar" for the light emitted from the area around Supermassive black holes | ||||
| Developed the idea that all stars have a habitable zone, a distance where water could be liquid on the surface and thus there would be potential for life. | ||||
| Together with Wilhelm Beer he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars |
|
|
