Brian G. Marsden
Brian Geoffrey Marsden (* August 5, 1937 in Cambridge, England; † November 18, 2010 in Burlington, Massachusetts ) was a British astronomer who lived in the U.S. and worked. He worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge (Massachusetts ) and in the years 1978 to 2006 director of the Minor Planet Center.
Life
Marsden was born in 1937 in Cambridge, England and studied astronomy at Oxford University and later at Yale University. He was an expert in the fields of celestial mechanics and astrometry, specializing in the calculation of the orbits of asteroids and comets, for which there are few available observational data, as well as to the determination of path deviations. For Pluto, he hit a double status as a planet before and Asteroid (10000).
Marsden predicted current orbits of celestial bodies that were due to inaccurate orbit determination as lost or whose paths had changed. His work are due rediscoveries " lost" comets and minor planets. In particular, in comets, a recovery be difficult because their car next to gravitational disturbances can change by other celestial bodies also due nichtgravitativer effects ( rebound effect by the ejection of jets). So Marsden said in 1992 ahead of the return of the long-lost periodic comet Swift -Tuttle, which actually occurred. His calculations also showed that the comet Shoemaker- Levy 9 had to rush to the planet Jupiter. He examined the orbits of the comets of the Kreutz group and showed that their members can be divided into two subgroups.
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh discovered Regardless of Marsden on 28 August 1982, asteroid ( 37556 ) Svyaztie.
In August 2006, he went along with Pluto as a planet in retirement.
For his achievements Marsden has received several awards from the American Astronomical Society.
According to Brian Marsden of the asteroid (1877 ) Marsden was named.
Publications
- Brian G. Marsden, Z. Sekanina, DK Yeomans: Comets and nongravitational forces. V.; Astronomical Journal Volume 78, No. 2, March 1973; (online)
- Brian G. Marsden: Catalogue of cometary orbits; Minor Planet Center Cambridge Mas. ; 7th expanded edition, 1992; ASIN B0006DIVAM
- Jane Luu, Brian G. Marsden, David Jewitt, Chadwick A. Trujillo, Carl W. Hergenrother Jun Chen, Warren B. Offutt: A new dynamical class of object in the outer solar system; Nature, Volume 387, June 5, 1997 ( online)