Marc W. Buie

Marc Buie William (born 1958 ) is an American astronomer.

He has worked in the field of Planetary Sciences and is particularly concerned with Pluto, the trans-Neptunian objects ( Kuiper Belt asteroids ) and the Centaurs.

Buie in 1980 he received his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. He received his doctorate in 1984 for PhD at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Marc W. Buie working at the Lowell Observatory, and has discovered a number of asteroids in the framework of the Deep Ecliptic Survey program in which he plays a leading role. This includes many trans-Neptunian objects. Buie also one of the Mitentdeckern the recently discovered small moons Nix and Hydra, Pluto (Pluto Pluto II and III).

The scientist is involved in the exploration of the dwarf planet Pluto by the space probe New Horizons, which will fly past Pluto in July 2015 on and its moons. During the long time of flight of spacecraft are among others Buie and his team are currently targeted in search of trans-Neptunian objects that are close to the expected trajectory of the spacecraft after Pluto passage, so that if a through appropriate timely path corrections of the flyby or two trans-Neptunian objects can be arranged.

Pluto fascinated Marc W. Buie claims to have as a student. In his doctoral thesis, he had worked as a theme the light curves CCD spectrophotometry of Pluto. Based on this, his academic career is marked by the participation in numerous research projects on planetologischen questions about the trans-Neptunian objects.

After him the asteroid ( 7553 ) Buie is named.