List of astronomers

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The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists 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.

Notable astronomers

Name Country Born Died Notable for
Marc Aaronson United States 1950 1987 His work concentrated on three fields: the determination of the Hubble constant (H0) using the Tully–Fisher relation, the study of carbon rich stars, 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.

George Ogden Abell United States 1927 1983
Hiroshi Abe Japan 1958
Michaël Gillon Belgium 1974
Antonio Abetti Italy 1847 1928
Giorgio Abetti Italy 1882 1982
Charles Greeley Abbot United States 1872 1973
Charles Hitchcock Adams United States 1868 1951
John Couch Adams United Kingdom 1819 1892 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.
Walter Sydney Adams United States 1876 1956
Saul Adelman United States 1944
Petrus Alphonsi Spain 1062 1110
Agrippa Greece fl. c. 92 Agrippa observed the occultation of a part of the Pleiades by the southernmost part of the Moon.
Paul Oswald Ahnert Germany 1897 1989
Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs Germany 1912 1954
George Biddell Airy United Kingdom 1801 1892
Robert Aitken United States 1864 1951
Makio Akiyama Japan 1950
Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi Persia 903 986
Albategnius (see Al-Batani) Syria c. 858 929 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)
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Albitzky Russia 1891 1952
Albumasar Persia 787 886
George Alcock United Kingdom 1913 2000
Harold Alden United States 1890 1964
Hannes Alfvén Sweden 1908 1995
Lawrence H. Aller United States 1913 2003
Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian Armenia 1912 1996 One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union.
John August Anderson United States 1876 1959
Wilhelm Anderson Estonia 1880 1940
Marie Henri Andoyer France 1862 1929
Andronicus of Cyrrhus Greece fl. c. 100 BC
Anders Jonas Ångström Sweden 1814 1874
Eugène Michel Antoniadi Greece/France 1870 1944 He made the first map of Mercury (although his maps were flawed due to incorrectly assumming that Mercury had synchronous rotation with the Sun)
Masakatsu Aoki Japan 1957
Petrus Apianus Germany 1495 1557
François Arago France 1786 1853
Masaru Arai Japan 1952
Hiroshi Araki Japan
Sylvain Arend Belgium 1902 1992
Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander Germany 1799 1875
Aristarchus of Samos Greece c. 310 BC c. 230 BC 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.
Christoph Arnold Germany 1650 1695
Halton Christian Arp United States 1927 2013
Aryabhata India 476 550 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).
Arzachel Spain 1028 1087
Asada Goryu Japan 1734 1799
Atsuo Asami Japan
Giuseppe Asclepi Italy 1706 1776
Joseph Ashbrook United States 1918 1980
Arthur Auwers Germany 1838 1915
Adrien Auzout France 1622 1691
David Axon England 1951 2012
Walter Baade Germany 1893 1960
Harold D. Babcock United States 1882 1968
Horace W. Babcock United States 1912 2003
Oskar Backlund Sweden 1846 1916
John N. Bahcall United States 1934 2005
Yoshiaki Banno Japan 1952 1991
Benjamin Baillaud France 1848 1934
Jules Baillaud France 1876 1960
Jean-Baptiste Baille France 1841 1918
Jean Sylvain Bailly France 1736 1793
Francis Baily United Kingdom 1774 1844
John Bainbridge United Kingdom 1582 1643
John E. Baldwin United Kingdom 1931 2010
Sallie Baliunas United States 1953
Zoltán Balog Hungary/United States 1972
Benjamin Banneker United States 1731 1806
Pietro Baracchi Italy/Australia 1851 1926
Beatriz Barbuy Brazil 1950
Edward Emerson Barnard United States 1857 1923 He is best known for his discovery of the high proper motion of Barnard's Star in 1916, which is named in his honor
Al Battani Iraq 850 929
Stefi Baum United States 1958
Julius Bauschinger Germany 1860 1934
Johann Bayer Germany 1572 1625
Antonín Bečvář Czechoslovakia 1901 1965
Wilhelm Beer Germany 1797 1850 Together with Johann Heinrich Mädler he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars
Sergei Ivanovich Belyavsky Russia 1883 1953
Charles L. Bennett United States 1956
Bhaskara I India 600 680
Bhaskara II India 1114 1185
Jocelyn Bell Burnell United Kingdom 1943 Discovered the first radio pulsars, highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, in 1967
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Germany 1784 1846 The first to successfully calculate the distance to a star other than the sun
Somnath Bharadwaj India 1964
Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela Austria 1782 1856
Ludwig Biermann Germany 1907 1986 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"
Wolf Bickel Germany 1942
Guillaume Bigourdan France 1851 1932
James Binney United Kingdom 1950
Al-Biruni Khwarezm/Persia 973 1048
Gennady S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan Russia 1941
Adriaan Blaauw Netherlands 1914 2010
Nathaniel Bliss United Kingdom 1700 1764
Johann Elert Bode Germany 1747 1826
Alfred Bohrmann Germany 1904 2000
Bart Bok Netherlands 1906 1983 the discovery of Bok globules, which are small, densely dark clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen silhouetted against brighter backgrounds.
Charles Thomas Bolton United States/Canada 1943 2021 was one of the first to present strong evidence of the existence of a stellar-mass black hole
John Gatenby Bolton United Kingdom/Australia 1922 1993
William Cranch Bond United States 1789 1859
Thomas Bopp United States 1949 2018
Alphonse Borrelly France 1842 1926
Rudjer Boscovich Croatia 1711 1787
Lewis Boss United States 1846 1912
Alexis Bouvard France 1767 1843
Rychard Bouwens United States 1972
Edward L. G. Bowell United States 1943
Ira Sprague Bowen United States 1898 1973
Louis Boyer France 1901 1999
Brian J. Boyle United Kingdom/Australia 1960
Ronald N. Bracewell Australia/United States 1921 2007
James Bradley United Kingdom 1693 1762 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).
William A. Bradfield New Zealand/Australia 1927 2014
Tycho Brahe Denmark 1546 1601 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.
Brahmagupta India 598 668 CE
John Alfred Brashear United States 1840 1920
William Robert Brooks United States 1844 1922
Theodor Brorsen Denmark 1819 1895 He is best known for his discovery of five comets, including the lost periodic comet, 5D/Brorsen
Dirk Brouwer Netherlands/United States 1902 1966
Ernest William Brown United Kingdom 1866 1938
Michael (Mike) E. Brown United States 1965 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.
Hermann Alexander Brück Germany 1905 2000
Paul Brück France 1856 1922
Ismael Bullialdus France 1605 1694
Margaret Burbidge United Kingdom/United States 1919 2020
Miriam Burland Canada 1902 1996
Robert Burnham Jr. United States 1931 1993
Sherburne Wesley Burnham United States 1838 1921
Schelte J. Bus United States 1956
Bimla Buti India 1933
Alastair G. W. Cameron Canada 1925 2005 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.
William Wallace Campbell United States 1862 1938
Annie Jump Cannon United States 1863 1941
Luigi Carnera Italy 1875 1962
Edwin Francis Carpenter United States 1898 1963
James Carpenter United Kingdom 1840 1899
Richard Christopher Carrington United Kingdom 1826 1875
Sir John Carroll United Kingdom 1899 1974
César-François Cassini de Thury France 1714 1784
Dominique, comte de Cassini France 1748 1845
Giovanni Domenico Cassini France 1625 1712
Jacques Cassini France 1677 1756
Corsono Carsono Spain fl. c. 14th century
Bonaventura Cavalieri Italy 1598 1647
Anders Celsius Sweden 1701 1744
Vincenzo Cerulli Italy 1859 1927
Jean Chacornac France 1823 1873
Merieme Chadid France 1969
James Challis United Kingdom 1803 1882
Radha Gobinda Chandra Bangladesh/India 1878 1975
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar India/United States 1910 1995 He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "...theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars".
Carl Charlier Sweden 1862 1934
Auguste Charlois France 1864 1910
Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh Russia/Ukraine 1935 2017
Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh Russia/Ukraine 1931 2004
James Christy United States 1938 Discovered the largest of Pluto's moons, Charon
Edwin Foster Coddington United States 1870 1950
Jérôme Eugène Coggia France 1849 1919
Josep Comas i Solà Spain 1868 1937
Andrew Ainslie Common United Kingdom 1841 1903
Guy Consolmagno United States 1952
Nicolaus Copernicus Prussia/Poland 1473 1543 Copernicus discovered the heliocentric model of the solar system.
Janine Connes France 1934
Pablo Cottenot France 1800 ?
Heather Couper United Kingdom 1949 2020 In 1984, she was elected President of the British Astronomical Association, the first woman and the second-youngest person to hold the position.
Leopold Courvoisier Switzerland 1873 1955
Arthur Edwin Covington Canada 1914 2001
Philip Herbert Cowell United Kingdom 1870 1949
Thomas George Cowling United Kingdom 1906 1990
Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin United Kingdom 1865 1939
Luíz Cruls Brazil 1848 1908
James Cuffey United States 1911 1999
Heber Doust Curtis United States 1872 1942
Johann Baptist Cysat Switzerland 1587 1657
Alexander Dalgarno United States 1928 2015
Jacques Eugène d'Allonville France 1671 1732
Andre Louis Danjon France 1890 1967
Heinrich d'Arrest Germany 1822 1875
George Howard Darwin United Kingdom 1845 1912
Roger Davies United Kingdom 1954
Leonardo da Vinci Italy 1452 1519
William Rutter Dawes United Kingdom 1799 1868
Bernhard Dawson Argentina 1890 1960
Leo de Ball Germany/Austria 1853 1916
Duília de Mello Brazil 1963 Duília de Mello 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, the scientist was involved in the discovery of the largest spiral galaxy in the universe, the Condor Galaxy NGC 6872.
Henri Debehogne Belgium 1928 2007
Annibale de Gasparis Italy 1819 1892
Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre France 1749 1822
Charles-Eugène Delaunay France 1816 1872
Eugène Joseph Delporte Belgium 1882 1955
Audrey C. Delsanti France 1976
William Frederick Denning United Kingdom 1848 1931
Alíz Derekas Hungary 1977
Henri-Alexandre Deslandres France 1853 1948
Alexander Nikolaevich Deutsch Russia 1900 1986
Gérard de Vaucouleurs France/United States 1918 1995
Robert Dicke United States 1916 1997
Terence Dickinson Canada 1943
Thomas Digges United Kingdom 1546 1595
Herbert Dingle United States 1890 1978
Andrea Di Paola Italy 1970
Ewine van Dishoeck Netherlands 1955
Helen Dodson Prince United States 1905 2002
Giovanni Battista Donati Italy 1826 1873
Frank Drake United States 1930
Henry Draper United States 1837 1882
John Dreyer Ireland 1852 1926
Yuriy Drohobych Ukraine 1450 1494
Alexander D. Dubyago Russia 1903 1959
Dmitrij I. Dubyago Russia 1850 1918
Jean C. B. Dufay France 1896 1967
Raymond Smith Dugan United States 1878 1940
James Dunlop Scotland 1793 1848
Petar Đurković Serbia 1908 1981
Frank Watson Dyson United Kingdom 1868 1939
Arthur Eddington United Kingdom 1882 1944 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.
Frank K. Edmondson United States 1912 2008
Olin J. Eggen United States 1919 1998
David J. Eicher United States 1961
Albert Einstein Germany 1879 1955
Eise Eisinga Netherlands 1744 1828
Eric Walter Elst Belgium 1936 2022
Johann Franz Encke Germany 1791 1865
Kin Endate Japan 1960
Eratosthenes Alexandria 276 BC 194 BC
Emil Ernst Germany 1889 1942
Ernest Esclangon France 1876 1954
Fred Espenak United States 1953
Larry W. Esposito United States 1951
Eudoxus of Cnidus Ancient Greece c. 408 BC c. 355 BC
Robert Evans Australia 1937 2022
Sandra M. Faber United States 1945
David Fabricius Netherlands 1564 1617
Johannes Fabricius Netherlands 1587 1615
Fearon Fallows United Kingdom 1789 1831
Farghani Persia 800 870
Hervé Faye France 1814 1902
Charles Fehrenbach France 1914 2008
Gyula Fényi Hungary 1845 1927
James Ferguson United States 1797 1867
Gary Ferland United States 1951
Alex Filippenko United States 1958
Erwin Finlay-Freundlich Germany 1885 1964
Axel Firsoff United Kingdom 1910 1981
Debra Fischer United States 1951
J. Richard Fisher United States 1943
Camille Flammarion France 1842 1925
Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion France 1867 1962
John Flamsteed United Kingdom 1646 1719
Honoré Flaugergues France 1755 1835
Williamina Fleming United States 1857 1911
Wilhelm Julius Foerster Germany 1832 1921
Alfred Fowler United Kingdom 1868 1940
William Alfred Fowler United States 1911 1995 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.
Philip Fox United States 1878 1944
Andrew Fraknoi United States 1948
Joseph von Fraunhofer Germany 1787 1826 Designed the Heliometer used to successfully calculate the distance to a star, other than the sun, for the first time.
Herbert Friedman United States 1916 2000
Dirk D. Frimout Belgium 1941
Edwin Brant Frost United States 1866 1935
Shigehisa Fujikawa Japan
Naoshi Fukushima Japan 1925 2003
Kiichirō Furukawa Japan 1929 2016
Toshimasa Furuta Japan
Bryan Gaensler Australia 1973
Galileo Galilei Italy 1564 1642
Gan De China fl. 4th century BC Gan De, together with Shi Shen compiled China's first star catalogue
Gordon J. Garradd Australia 1959
Julio Garavito Armero Colombia 1865 1920
Ben Gascoigne New Zealand/Australia 1915 2010
Gautama Siddha China fl. 8th century AD
Margaret Geller United States 1947
Johann Gottfried Galle Germany 1812 1910 was the first person to view the planet Neptune and know what he was looking at.
George Gamow Russia/United States 1904 1968
Carl Friedrich Gauss Germany 1777 1855
Tom Gehrels United States 1925 2011
Neil Gehrels United States 1952 2017 Gamma-ray astronomy; led Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory; led Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Robert Gendler United States 1957
Andrea M. Ghez United States 1965
Aurélien Barrau France 1973
Riccardo Giacconi Italy 1931 2018
Michel Giacobini France 1873 1938
Henry L. Giclas United States 1910 2007
David Gill United Kingdom 1843 1914
Ian Glass Ireland/South Africa 1939
Karl Glazebrook United Kingdom 1965 Determined that the average color of the vast universe is Cosmic Latte
Marcelo Gleiser Brazil 1959
Thomas Gold United States 1920 2004
Leo Goldberg United States 1913 1987
Peter Goldreich United States 1939
Hermann Goldschmidt Germany 1802 1866 In 1820, Goldschmidt discovered shadow bands in total solar eclipses
François Gonnessiat France 1856 1934
John Goodricke United Kingdom 1764 1786
Alyssa A. Goodman United States 1962
Abu Sa'id Gorgani Persia 9th century
Paul Götz Germany 1883 1962
Benjamin Apthorp Gould United States 1824 1896
Andrew Graham Ireland 1815 1907
Charles Green England 1735 1771
Jesse Greenstein United States 1909 2002
John Grunsfeld United States 1956
Edward Guinan United States 1922
Jay U. Gunter United States 1911 1994
Alexander A. Gurshtein Russia 1937 2020
Bengt Gustafsson Sweden 1943
Guo Shoujing China 1231 1316
Alan Harvey Guth United States 1947
Yusuke Hagihara Japan 1897 1979
Alan Hale United States 1958
George Ellery Hale United States 1868 1938
Asaph Hall United States 1829 1907
Edmond Halley England 1656 1742
Erika Hamden United States ?
Heidi Hammel United States 1960
Mario Hamuy Chile 1960
Peter Andreas Hansen Denmark 1795 1874
Abulfazl Harawi Persia 10th century
Karl Ludwig Harding Germany 1765 1834 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.
Thomas Hariot United Kingdom 1560 1621
Guillermo Haro Mexico 1913 1988
Robert George Harrington United States 1904 1987
Robert Sutton Harrington United States 1942 1993
Edward Robert Harrison United Kingdom/United States 1917 2007
William Kenneth Hartmann United States 1939
John Hartnup Jr. United Kingdom 1841 1892
Lisa Harvey-Smith Australia 1979
Takeo Hatanaka Japan 1914 1963
Stephen Hawking United Kingdom 1942 2018
Will Hay United Kingdom 1888 1949
Chushiro Hayashi Japan 1920 2010
Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann Germany 1901 1983
E. Ruth Hedeman United States 1910 2006
Carl Heiles United States 1939
Joseph Helffrich Germany 1872 1971
Eleanor Helin United States 1932 2009
Maximilian Hell Austria-Hungary 1720 1792
Karl Ludwig Hencke Germany 1793 1866
Thomas Henderson Scotland 1798 1844
Paul Henry France 1848 1905
Prosper Henry France 1849 1903
Abraham bar Hiyya Spanish Jewish 1070 1136
George Howard Herbig United States 1920 2013
Carl W. Hergenrother United States 1973
Caroline Herschel United Kingdom 1750 1848
John Herschel United Kingdom 1792 1871
William Herschel United Kingdom/Germany 1738 1822 Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781.
Ejnar Hertzsprung Denmark 1873 1967 He developed a classification system for stars to divide them by spectral type, stage in their development, and luminosity, the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram.
Johannes Hevelius Poland 1611 1687
Antony Hewish United Kingdom 1924 2021 won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars.
George William Hill United States 1838 1914
John Russell Hind United Kingdom 1823 1895
Hipparchus Nicaea c. 190 BC 120 BC 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.
Masanori Hirasawa Japan
Kiyotsugu Hirayama Japan 1874 1943
Shin Hirayama Japan 1868 1945
Gustave-Adolphe Hirn France 1815 1890
Sebastian von Hoerner Germany 1919 2003
Cuno Hoffmeister Germany 1892 1968
Dorrit Hoffleit United States 1907 2007
Helen Sawyer Hogg Canada 1905 1993
Moses Holden United Kingdom 1777 1864
Paulo R. Holvorcem Brazil 1967
Minoru Honda Japan 1917 1990
Kamil Hornoch Czech Republic 1972
Jeremiah Horrocks United Kingdom c. 1619 1641 First person to demonstrate the Moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth. He predicted, observed and recorded the 1639 transit of Venus.
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld Netherlands 1921 2015
Herbert Alonzo Howe United States 1858 1926
Steve B. Howell United States 1955 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.
Fred Hoyle United Kingdom 1915 2001
Edwin Powell Hubble United States 1889 1953 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.
William Huggins United Kingdom 1824 1910
Russell Alan Hulse United States 1950
Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst Netherlands 1918 2000
Milton Lasell Humason United States 1891 1972
Thomas John Hussey England 1792 1854
Christiaan Huygens Netherlands 1629 1695 Discovered the largest moon of Saturn, Titan
Yuji Hyakutake Japan 1950 2002
Josef Allen Hynek United States 1910 1986
Hypatia Egypt c. 350–370 415
Christopher Hansteen Norway 1784 1873
Icko Iben Jr. United States 1931
Kaoru Ikeya Japan 1943
Chris Impey United Kingdom/United States 1956
Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes Scotland/South Africa 1861 1933
Shigeru Inoda Japan 1955 2008
Jamal Nazrul Islam Bangladesh 1939 2013
Edward Israel United States 1859 1884
Iwahashi Zenbei Japan 1756 1811
Masayuki Iwamoto Japan 1954
Shun-ei Izumikawa Japan
Cyril V. Jackson South Africa 1903 1988
Karan Jani India 1988
Pierre Jules César Janssen France 1824 1907
James Jeans United Kingdom 1877 1946
Benjamin Jekhowsky Russia/France/Algeria 1881 1975
Louise Freeland Jenkins United States 1888 1970
David C. Jewitt United Kingdom 1958
Jiao Bingzhen China 1689 1726
John A. Johnson United States 1977
Alfred Harrison Joy United States 1882 1973
Vinod Johri India 1935 2014
Tetsuo Kagawa Japan 1969
Norio Kaifu Japan 1943 2019 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.[1]
Franz Kaiser Germany 1891 1962
Piet van de Kamp Netherlands/United States 1901 1995
Kiyotaka Kanai Japan 1951
Hiroshi Kaneda Japan 1953
Henry Kandrup United States 1955 2003
Jacobus Kapteyn Netherlands 1851 1922
Lyudmila Karachkina Ukraine 1948
Ghiyath al-Kashi Persia 1380 1429
Jeffrey Owen Katz United States 1960
Karlis Kaufmanis Latvia/United States 1910 2003
Kōyō Kawanishi Japan 1959
Nobuhiro Kawasato Japan
James Edward Keeler United States 1857 1900
Paul Kempf Germany 1856 1920
Johannes Kepler Germany 1571 1630
Omar Khayyám Persia 1048 1131
Al-Khujandi Persia c. 940 1000 discovered that the axial tilt of the earth is not constant
Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī Persia 780 850
Kidinnu Babylon fl. 4th century BC c. 330 BC
Hisashi Kimura Japan 1870 1943
Maria Margarethe Kirch Germany 1670 1720
Daniel Kirkwood United States 1814 1895
Robert Kirshner United States 1949
Minoru Kizawa Japan 1947
Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues Germany 1827 1884
Viktor Knorre Russia 1840 1919
Takao Kobayashi Japan 1961
Toru Kobayashi Japan
Luboš Kohoutek Czechoslovakia 1935
Masahiro Koishikawa Japan 1952 2020
Nobuhisa Kojima Japan 1933
Takuo Kojima Japan 1955
Yoji Kondo Japan 1933 2017
Zdeněk Kopal Czechoslovakia/United Kingdom/United States 1914 1993
Sergei Kopeikin United States 1956
August Kopff Germany 1882 1960
Korado Korlević Croatia 1958
Hiroki Kosai Japan 1933
Charles T. Kowal United States 1940 2011
Robert Kraft United States 1927 2015
Ľubor Kresák Czechoslovakia 1927 1994
Heinrich Kreutz Germany 1854 1927
Edwin C. Krupp United States 1944
Kazuo Kubokawa Japan 1903 1943
Marc Kuchner United States 1972
Gerard Kuiper Netherlands/United States 1905 1973 The namesake of the Kuiper belt, a region of minor planets beyond Neptune.
György Kulin Austria-Hungary 1905 1989
Donald Kurtz United States 1948
Ali Kuşçu Turkey 1403 1474
Reiki Kushida Japan
Yoshio Kushida Japan 1957
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille France 1713 1762
Elizabeth Lada United States
Lagadha India 1st millennium BCE
Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist Sweden 1944
Joseph-Louis Lagrange France 1736 1813
Emily Lakdawalla United States 1975
Jérôme Lalande France 1732 1807 Calculated the distance from the moon to Earth
Johann Heinrich Lambert France/Germany 1728 1777
David J. Lane Canada 1963
Andrew E. Lange United States 1957 2010
Samuel Pierpont Langley United States 1834 1906
Pierre-Simon Laplace France 1749 1827
Jacques Laskar France 1955
William Lassell United Kingdom 1799 1880
Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent France 1900
Henrietta Swan Leavitt United States 1868 1921 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.
Typhoon Lee United States/Taiwan 1948
Guillaume Le Gentil France 1725 1792
Georges Lemaître Belgium 1894 1966 Being the first the theorize that the Universe is ever expanding. The namesake of the Hubble–Lemaître law
Pierre Lemonnier France 1715 1799
Frederick C. Leonard United States 1896 1960
Armin Leuschner United States 1868 1953
Geraint Lewis Australia 1969
Urbain Le Verrier France 1811 1877 Theorized the existence of Neptune by calculations of its influence of orbit of Uranus, which let to Neptune's discovery.
Li Fan China 202 AD 220 AD
Bertil Lindblad Sweden 1895 1965
Adolph Friedrich Lindemann Germany/United Kingdom 1846 1927
Chris Lintott United Kingdom 1980
Joseph Johann Littrow Austria 1781 1840
Karl L. Littrow Austria 1811 1877
Liu Xin China 50 BCE 23 BCE
Joseph Lockyer United Kingdom 1836 1920
Maurice Loewy Austria/France 1833 1907
Christian Sørensen Longomontanus Denmark 1562 1647
Bernard Lovell United Kingdom 1913 2012
Percival Lowell United States 1855 1916 Theorized the existence of a ninth planet beyond Neptune, and contributed to the calculations that would eventually lead to the discovery of Pluto
Rosaly Lopes Brazil 1957
Ángel López Spain 1955
Álvaro López-García Spain 1941 2019
John William Lubbock United Kingdom 1803 1865
Knut Lundmark Sweden 1889 1958
Lupitus of Barcelona Spain fl. 10th century
Robert Luther Germany 1822 1900
Jane Luu South Vietnam/United States 1963
Willem Luyten Dutch East Indies (Netherlands) 1899 1994
Donald Lynden-Bell United Kingdom 1935 2018
Andrew Lyne United Kingdom 1942
Bernard Lyot France 1897 1952
Mahendra Suri India c. 1340 1400
Ma Yize China 910 1005
Adriaan van Maanen United States 1884 1946
George Parker 2nd Earl of Macclesfield United Kingdom c. 1697 1764
Amy Mainzer United States 1974
Steve Mandel United States
Geoff Marcy United States 1954
Simon Marius Germany 1573 1624
Brian G. Marsden United States 1937 2010
Albert Marth Germany 1828 1897
Nevil Maskelyne United Kingdom 1732 1811
Charles Mason United Kingdom/United States 1730 1787
John C. Mather United States 1946
Janet Akyüz Mattei Turkey/United States 1943 2004
Edward Walter Maunder United Kingdom 1851 1928
Pierre Louis Maupertuis France 1698 1759
Alain Maury France 1958
Matthew Fontaine Maury United States 1806 1873
Brian May United Kingdom 1947
Cornell Mayer United States 1922 2005
Tobias Mayer Germany 1723 1762
Michel Mayor Switzerland 1942
Christopher McKee United States 1942
Robert S. McMillan United States
William H. McCrea United Kingdom 1904 1999
Bruce A. McIntosh Canada 1929 2015
Robert H. McNaught Australia 1956
Pierre Méchain France 1744 1804
Thebe Medupe South Africa 1973
Karen Jean Meech United States 1959
Aden Baker Meinel United States 1922 2011
Fulvio Melia United States 1956
Philibert Jacques Melotte United Kingdom 1880 1961
Paul Willard Merrill United States 1887 1961
David Merritt United States 1955
Charles Messier France 1730 1817
Joel Hastings Metcalf United States 1866 1925
Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos United States 1947 1997
John Michell United Kingdom 1724 1793 The first person known to have proposed the existence of black holes
Elia Millosevich Italy 1848 1919
Edward Arthur Milne United Kingdom 1896 1950
Rudolph Minkowski Germany 1895 1976
Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert Belgium/Netherlands 1893 1970
Maria Mitchell United States 1818 1889
Seidai Miyasaka Japan 1955
Yoshikane Mizuno Japan 1954
August Ferdinand Möbius Germany 1790 1868
Anthony Moffat Canada
Johan Maurits Mohr Netherlands 1716 1775
Samuel Molyneux United Kingdom 1689 1728 best known for his work in attempting to measure the parallax of Gamma Draconis leading to the discovery of the aberration of light
Geminiano Montanari Italy 1633 1687
Patrick Moore United Kingdom 1923 2012
James Michael Moran United States 1943
William Wilson Morgan United States 1906 1994
Hiroshi Mori Japan 1958
Amédée Mouchez France 1821 1892
Antonín Mrkos Czechoslovakia 1918 1996
Jean Mueller United States 1950
Masaru Mukai Japan 1949
Gustav Müller Germany 1851 1925
Johannes Müller Germany 1436 1476
Harutaro Murakami Japan 1872 1947
Osamu Muramatsu Japan 1949
bin Musa Ahmad Persia 805 873
bin Musa Hasan Persia 810 873
bin Musa Muhammad Persia c. 800 873
Nils Mustelin Finland 1931 2004
Nilakantha Somayaji India 1444 1544
Valentin Naboth Germany/Italy 1523 1593
Naburimannu Babylonia sometime between 6th century BC and 2nd century BC
Takeshi Nagata Japan 1913 1991
Ahmad Nahavandi Persia 7th–8th century
Akimasa Nakamura Japan 1961
Syuichi Nakano Japan 1947
Jayant Narlikar India 1938
Naubakht Persia d. 776
Al-fadl ibn Naubakht Persia 8th century
Otto Neugebauer Germany/United States 1899 1990
Grigoriy Nikolaevich Neujmin Georgia/Russia 1886 1946
Simon Newcomb United States 1835 1909
Isaac Newton United Kingdom 1643 1727
Seth Barnes Nicholson United States 1891 1963
Albertus Antonie Nijland Netherlands 1868 1936
Tsuneo Niijima Japan 1955
Peter Nilson Sweden 1937 1998
Hōei Nojiri Japan 1885 1977
Jaime Nomen Spain 1960
Toshiro Nomura Japan 1954
Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard Norway 1966
Okuro Oikawa Japan 1896 1970
Tarmo Oja Sweden 1934
Tomimaru Okuni Japan 1931
Nicolaus Olahus Hungary 1493 1568
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers Germany 1758 1840 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.
Gerard O'Neill United States 1927 1992
Jan Hendrik Oort Netherlands 1900 1992 Determined that the Milky Way rotates, and disproved that the sun is the center of the Milky Way.
Pieter Oosterhoff Netherlands 1904 1978
Ernst Öpik Estonia/Ireland 1893 1985
José Luis Ortiz Moreno Spain 1967 Led the team to discover the dwarf planet Haumea in 2004
Yoshiaki Oshima Japan 1952
Donald Edward Osterbrock United States 1924 2007
Liisi Oterma Finland 1915 2001
Satoru Otomo Japan 1957
Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans Netherlands 1827 1906
Rafael Pacheco Spain 1954
Bohdan Paczyński Poland 1940 2007
Ľudmila Pajdušáková Czechoslovakia 1916 1979
Johann Palisa Austria 1848 1925
Johann Palitzsch Germany 1723 1788
Anton Pannekoek Netherlands 1873 1960
Eugene Parker United States 1927 2022
William Parsons (Lord Rosse) Ireland 1800 1867 discovered the spiral nature of some nebulae, today known to be spiral galaxies
Miriani Griselda Pastoriza Brazil 1939
André Patry France 1902 1960
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin United Kingdom/United States 1900 1979
Ruby Payne-Scott Australia 1912 1981
James Peebles Canada/United States 1935
Sir Cuthbert Peek, 2nd Baronet United Kingdom 1855 1901
Leslie Copus Peltier United States 1900 1980
Roger Penrose United Kingdom 1931
Arno Penzias United States/Germany 1933 2024
Saul Perlmutter United States 1959 Proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding.
Charles Dillon Perrine United States/Argentina 1867 1951
Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin France 1845 1904
Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters Germany/United States 1813 1890
George Henry Peters United States 1863 1947
Mark M. Phillips United States 1951
Giuseppe Piazzi Italy 1746 1826 Discovered the dwarf planet Ceres
Edward Charles Pickering United States 1846 1919
William Henry Pickering United States 1858 1938
Paris Pişmiş Armenia/Mexico 1911 1999
Maynard Pittendreigh United States 1954
Phil Plait United States 1964
Giovanni Antonio Amedeo Plana Italy 1781 1864
Petrus Plancius Netherlands 1552 1622
John Stanley Plaskett Canada 1865 1941
Norman Robert Pogson United Kingdom 1829 1891
Christian Pollas France 1947
John Pond England 1767 1836
Jean-Louis Pons France 1761 1831
Carolyn Porco United States 1953
Vladimír Porubčan Czechoslovakia 1940
Charles Pritchard United Kingdom 1808 1893
Richard Proctor England 1837 1888
Milorad B. Protić Serbia 1911 2001
Ptolemy of Alexandria Roman Egypt c. 85 165
Pierre Puiseux France 1855 1928
Georg Purbach Germany 1423 1461
Pythagoras of Samos Greece 580 BC 500 BC
Adolphe Quetelet Belgium 1796 1874
M. Shahid Qureshi Pakistan
Ali Qushji Ottoman Empire 1403 1474
David Lincoln Rabinowitz United States 1960 Co-discoverer of the dwarf planet Eris in 2006
Narayan Chandra Rana India 1954 1996[2]
Grote Reber United States 1911 2002
Martin Rees United Kingdom 1942
Edward Ayearst Reeves United Kingdom 1862 1945 Geographer and astronomer[3]
Hubert Reeves Canada 1932 2023
Johannes Müller Germany 1436 1476
Julius Reichelt Germany 1637 1717
Erasmus Reinhold Prussia, Germany 1511 1553
Karl Reinmuth Germany 1892 1979
Pieter Johannes van Rhijn Netherlands 1886 1960
Giovanni Battista Riccioli Italy 1598 1671 discovering the first double star.
Mercedes Richards Jamaica 1955 2016 Pioneering research in the tomography of interacting binary star systems and cataclysmic variable stars to predict magnetic activity and simulate gas flow is her most known work. She was the first to use tomography in astronomy.
Jean Richer France 1630 1696
Edward Riddle England 1788 1854
Adam Riess United States 1969 He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes and for being part of the team that proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding.
Fernand Rigaux Belgium 1905 1962
George Willis Ritchey United States 1864 1945
David Rittenhouse United States 1732 1796
Hans-Walter Rix Germany 1964
Carmelle Robert Canada 1962
Arjen Roelofs Netherlands 1754 1824
Elizabeth Roemer United States 1929 2016
Roger of Hereford England c. 1176 1198
Nancy G. Roman United States 1925 2018
Gustavo E. Romero Argentina 1964
Ole Christensen Rømer Denmark 1644 1710 made the first measurement of the speed of light and discovery that light travels at a finite speed.
Otto A. Rosenberger Germany 1800 1890
Svein Rosseland Norway 1894 1985
Bruno Rossi Italy 1905 1993
Laurie Rousseau-Nepton Canada
Vera Rubin United States 1928 2016 Studied the rotation of Galaxies. Her research provided evidence for the discovery of Dark matter.
Henry Chamberlain Russell Australia 1836 1907
Henry Norris Russell United States 1877 1957
Martin Ryle United Kingdom 1918 1984 won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars.
Sir Edward Sabine Ireland 1788 1883
Sadr al-Shari'a al-Asghar Uzbekistan ? 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.
Carl Sagan United States 1934 1996
Megh Nad Saha India 1893 1956 best known for developing the Saha ionization equation, which has been instrumental in understanding the physical and chemical properties of stars.
Edwin Ernest Salpeter Austria/Australia/United States 1924 2008
Allan Rex Sandage United States 1926 2010
Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen Netherlands 1838 1923
Wallace Leslie William Sargent United Kingdom/United States 1935 2012
Anneila Sargent United Kingdom/United States 1942
Naoto Sato Japan 1953
Alexandre Schaumasse France 1882 1958
Giovanni Schiaparelli Italy 1835 1910
Frank Schlesinger United States 1871 1943
Bernhard Schmidt Estonia/Sweden/Germany 1879 1935
Brian P. Schmidt United States 1967 Proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding.
Maarten Schmidt Netherlands 1929 2022
Robert Schommer United States 1946 2001
Johann Hieronymus Schröter Germany 1745 1816 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.
Lipót Schulhof Hungary 1847 1921
Heinrich Christian Schumacher Germany 1780 1850
Hans-Emil Schuster Germany 1934
Samuel Heinrich Schwabe Germany 1789 1875
Karl Schwarzschild Germany 1873 1916
Martin Schwarzschild Germany/United States 1912 1997
Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann Germany 1870 1964
James Vernon Scotti United States 1960
Frederick Hanley Seares United States 1873 1964
George Mary Searle United States 1839 1918
Angelo Secchi Italy 1818 1878 One of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the Sun is a star.
Sadao Sei Japan
Waltraut Seitter Germany 1930 2007
Tsutomu Seki Japan 1930
Carl Keenan Seyfert United States 1911 1960
Grigory Abramovich Shajn Russia 1892 1956
Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn Russia 1894 1956
Harlow Shapley United States 1885 1972
Richard Sheepshanks United Kingdom 1794 1855
Shen Kuo China 1031 1095
Shi Shen China fl. 4th century BC Shi Shen, together with Gan De compiled China's first star catalogue
Shibukawa Shunkai Japan 1639 1715
Yoshisada Shimizu Japan 1943
Shinzo Shinjo Japan 1873 1938
Qutb eddin Shirazi Persia 1236 1311
Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky Russia 1916 1985
Vladimir Shkodrov Bulgaria 1930 2010
Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker United States 1929 2021
Eugene Merle Shoemaker United States 1928 1997
Edward M. Sion United States 1946
Willem de Sitter Netherlands 1872 1934 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.
Charlotte Moore Sitterly United States 1898 1990
Brian A. Skiff United States
John Francis Skjellerup Australia/South Africa 1875 1952
Vesto Melvin Slipher United States 1875 1969
William Marshall Smart United Kingdom 1889 1975
Tamara Mikhaylovna Smirnova Russia 1935 2001
George Smoot United States 1945
William Henry Smyth United Kingdom 1788 1865
Snell Netherlands 1580 1626
Mary Fairfax Somerville United Kingdom 1780 1872
Sir James South United Kingdom 1785 1867
Sir Harold Spencer Jones United Kingdom 1890 1960
Lyman Spitzer United States 1914 1997
Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Spörer Germany 1822 1895
Rainer Spurzem Germany 1956
Anton Staus Germany 1872 1955
Joel Stebbins United States 1878 1966
Johan Stein Netherlands 1871 1951
Karl August von Steinheil Germany 1801 1870
Édouard Stephan France 1837 1923
David J. Stevenson New Zealand 1948
Edward James Stone England 1831 1897
F. J. M. Stratton United Kingdom 1881 1960
Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren Denmark 1908 1987
Karl Hermann Struve Russia/Germany 1854 1920
Gustav Wilhelm Ludwig Struve Russia 1858 1920
Otto Struve Russia/United States 1897 1963
Su Song China 1020 1101
Matsuo Sugano Japan 1939
Atsushi Sugie Japan
Nicholas Suntzeff United States 1952
Rashid Alievich Sunyaev Uzbekistan/Russia/Germany 1943
Shohei Suzuki Japan
Lewis A. Swift United States 1820 1913
Frédéric Sy France 1861 1917
Akihiko Tago Japan 1932
Atsushi Takahashi Japan 1965
Kesao Takamizawa Japan 1952
Yasuo Tanaka Japan 1931 2018
Pierre Tardi France 1897 1972
Jill Tarter United States 1944 Research in extra-terristrial light. Came up with the name Brown dwarfs for substellar entities.
Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. United States 1941
John Tebbutt Australia 1834 1916
Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel Germany 1821 1889
Thabit ibn Qurra Iraq 826 901
Thorvald Nicolai Thiele Denmark 1838 1910
Louis Thollon France 1829 1887
Norman G. Thomas United States 1930 2020
John Thome United States/Argentina 1843 1908
Kip Stephen Thorne United States 1940
Friedrich Tietjen Germany 1834 1895
Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley New Zealand/United States 1941 1981
François Félix Tisserand France 1845 1896
Johann Daniel Titius Germany 1729 1796
Clyde W. Tombaugh United States 1906 1997 Discovered Pluto as well as numerous asteroids
Kōichirō Tomita Japan 1925 2006
Richard Tousey United States 1908 1997
Charles Townes United States 1915 2015
Virginia Trimble United States 1943
Chad Trujillo United States 1973 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.
Robert Julius Trumpler United States 1886 1956
R. Brent Tully United States 1943
Herbert Hall Turner England 1861 1930 Coined the term Parsec, a very large unit of distance to measure the distance to objects outside the solar system
Nasir al-Din Tusi Persia 1201 1274
Horace Parnell Tuttle United States 1839 1923
Neil deGrasse Tyson United States 1958
Seiji Ueda Japan 1952
Ulugh Beg Uzbekistan 1394 1449
Antonio de Ulloa Spain 1716 1795
Albrecht Unsöld Germany 1905 1995
Takeshi Urata Japan 1947 2012
Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi Persia c. 1200 1266
Fumiaki Uto Japan
Yrjö Väisälä Finland 1891 1971
Benjamin Valz France 1787 1867
James Van Allen United States 1914 2006
George Van Biesbroeck Belgium/United States 1880 1974
Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst Netherlands 1918 2000
Peter van de Kamp United States 1901 1995
Sidney van den Bergh Canada 1929
Martin van den Hove Netherlands 1605 1639
Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen Netherlands 1838 1923
Hendrik van Gent Netherlands/South Africa 1900 1947
Cornelis Johannes van Houten Netherlands 1920 2002
Pieter Johannes van Rhijn Netherlands 1886 1960
Sylvie Vauclair France 1946
Gérard de Vaucouleurs France/United States 1918 1995
Zdeňka Vávrová Czechoslovakia 1945
Jean-Pierre Verdet France 1932
Philippe Véron France 1939 2014
Frank Washington Very United States 1852 1927
Yvon Villarceau France 1813 1883
Julie Vinter Hansen Denmark 1890 1960
Hermann Carl Vogel Germany 1841 1907
Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve Germany/Russia 1793 1864
Otto Wilhelm von Struve Russia 1819 1905
Alexander N. Vyssotsky Russia/United States 1888 1973 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.
Emma Vyssotsky United States 1894 1975
Arno Arthur Wachmann Germany 1902 1990
Abul Wáfa Persia 940 997/998
Walcher of Malvern England ? 1135
George Wallerstein United States 1930 2021
William Wales United Kingdom c. 1734 1798
Qingde Wang United States/China
Kazuro Watanabe Japan 1955
James Craig Watson United States 1838 1880
Edmund Weaver United Kingdom 1663 1748
Kim Weaver United States 1969
Thomas William Webb United Kingdom 1807 1885
Alfred Lothar Wegener Germany 1880 1930
Gary A. Wegner United States 1944
Wei Pu China 960 1279
Karl von Weizsäcker Germany 1912 2007
Godefroy Wendelin Belgium 1580 1667
Richard M. West Denmark 1941
Gart Westerhout Netherlands/United States 1927 2012
Bengt Westerlund Sweden 1921 2008
J. G. Westphal Germany 1824 1859
Johann Heinrich Westphal Germany/Italy 1794 1831
George Wetherill United States 1925 2006
John Archibald Wheeler United States 1911 2008 Popularizing the term 'wormholes', theoretical holes in spacetime
Fred Lawrence Whipple United States 1906 2004
Albert Whitford United States 1905 2002
Mary Watson Whitney United States 1847 1921
Chandra Wickramasinghe United Kingdom 1939
Paul Wild Switzerland 1925 2014
Olin C. Wilson United States 1909 1994
Rogier Windhorst United States 1955
Robert Wilson United States 1936
Vincent Wing United Kingdom 1619 1668 Author of the Astronomia Britannica (published in 1669).
John Winthrop Massachusetts Bay Colony 1714 1779
Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke Germany 1835 1897
Carl Wirtanen United States 1910 1990
Jack Wisdom United States 1953
Gustav Witt Germany 1866 1946
Maximilian Wolf Germany 1863 1932
Aleksander Wolszczan Poland 1946 Co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets.
Richard van der Riet Woolley United Kingdom 1906 1986
Thomas Wright United Kingdom 1711 1786
Issei Yamamoto Japan 1889 1959
Masayuki Yanai Japan 1959
Yi Xing China 683 727
Anne Sewell Young United States 1871 1961
Charles Augustus Young United States 1834 1908
James Whitney Young United States 1941
Franz Xaver von Zach Germany 1753 1832 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.
Abraham Zacuto Spain/Portugal 1450 1510 His mapping of stars lead to breakthroughs in navigation
John Zarnecki United Kingdom 1949
Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich USSR 1914 1987
Zhang Daqing China 1969
Zhang Heng China 78 139
Zhang Yuzhe China 1902 1986
Lyudmila Vasil'evna Zhuravleva Russia/Ukraine 1946
Felix Ziegel Soviet Union 1920 1988
Zu Chongzhi China 429 500
Fritz Zwicky Switzerland/United States 1898 1974 Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to discover the existence of a gravitational anomaly, which he termed dark matter.
Hong-Yee Chiu Taiwan/United States 1932 Coined the term "Quasar" for the light emitted from the area around Supermassive black holes
Su-Shu Huang China/United States 1915 1977 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.
Johann Heinrich von Mädler Germany 1794 1874 Together with Wilhelm Beer he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars


In alphabetical order:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

Others who influenced astronomy and astrophysics

The following is a list of people who are not astronomers but made a contribution to the field of astronomy and astrophysics.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "International Astronomical Union | IAU". www.iau.org. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
  2. ^ "E Paper". epaper.thestatesman.com. 29 November 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  3. ^ "Telescopic Alidade". National Museum of American History. Retrieved 2024-03-14.

General sources