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American astronomer and professor (1940-2017)
Michael Francis A'Hearn
(November 17, 1940 ? May 29, 2017) was an American
astronomer
and astronomy professor at the
University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences
.
[1]
He was also the principal investigator for
NASA
's
EPOXI
mission.
Career
[
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]
He received his
B.A.
in science at
Boston College
and his
Ph.D.
in
Astronomy
at the
University of Wisconsin?Madison
. He was the principal investigator for the
NASA
Deep Impact
mission. He aided in the development of systems for surveying
abundances
in comets as well as techniques for determining the sizes of cometary nuclei which uses optical and infrared measurements.
His studies focused on comets as well as asteroids and he also supervises numerous graduate students. He was an elected fellow of the
AAAS
. He authored over 100 papers published in journals and was also an avid sailor who had a commercial coast guard license.
[2]
In June 1986, the main-belt asteroid
3192 A'Hearn
, discovered by American astronomer
Edward Bowell
at Lowell's
Anderson Mesa Station
in Flagstaff, Arizona, was named after him in honor of his contributions to
cometary
science.
[3]
In 2008, he received the
Gerard P. Kuiper Prize
. He died on May 29, 2017, at the age of 76.
[4]
Honors
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Awards
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Eponym
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References
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External links
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