George Herbig

George Howard Herbig ( born January 2, 1920 in Wheeling, West Virginia; † October 12, 2013 in Honolulu, Hawaii) was an American astronomer.

Career

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1948 and his doctorate ( Ph.D.) from the University of California at Berkeley. His dissertation dealt with T Tauri stars. The research required for this purpose he carried out at the Lick Observatory, whose staff he joined in 1948. In the late 60s, the observatory went to the University of California, Santa Cruz, over.

He designed the Shane 3m telescope at Lick Observatory. In 1988 he moved to the University of Hawaii, where he remained active until his death.

Research focus

His main area of ​​responsibility were spectroscopic studies of young stars, star formation and interstellar matters. So he found many T Tauri stars, also carries the class of Herbig star, which he defined in 1960, his name. Regardless of Guillermo Haro, he discovered the Herbig -Haro objects. These are gas clouds that belong to young stars.

Honors

In addition, the asteroid ( 11754 ) Herbig was named after him.