Antonín Mrkos () (27 January 1918,

Střemchoví Střemchoví is a village and administrative part of Dolní Loučky in Brno-Country District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. 2811 Střemchoví, an asteroid, was named after this village. Notable people *Antonín Mrkos A ...

– 29 May 1996,

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

) was a Czech

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

Biography

Mrkos entered the University in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

in 1938. His studies were interrupted by the onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and in 1945 he became a staff member at the Skalnaté Pleso Observatory in

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It was from here that he carried out his extremely active

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

ary programme and became the discoverer of several unusual comets, the most famous of them the bright Comet 1957d. He was the second Czech in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

and the first Czechoslovak to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility as a member of the

3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition The Third Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1957–59) was led by Yevgeny Tolstikov on the continent and included Czech future astronomer Antonín Mrkos; the marine expedition on the ''Ob'' was led by I V Maksimov. Two diesel-electric ships were used ...

(1957–1959). The Czechoslovakian flag was the second flag raised after the flag of the USSR. He returned to Antarctica as the head of the four-member Czechoslovakian crew in the seventh Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1961–1963). He was studying auroras among other things."První český vědec na Antarktidě: Výzkum v nejdrsnějších podmínkách na Zemi"
by Hynek Adámek, '' National Geographic Czech'', 18 May 2012 He was invited for what would have been his third expedition to the Antarctic but could not participate because of an almost fatal accident. It is thought someone tried to injure or to kill him by adding a bottle of strongly concentrated detergent among his other bottles of mineral water. Since this accident he could only eat liquid meals for the rest of his life. In 1965 he became director of

Kleť Observatory Kleť Observatory ( cz, Hvězdárna Kleť; obs. code: 046) is an astronomical observatory in the Czech Republic. It is situated in South Bohemia, south of the summit of Mount Kleť, near the town of České Budějovice. Constructed in 1957, t ...

. Beginning in 1968 he made photographic observations at Kleť and extended this activity to minor planets in 1977. For many years he was the most regular contributor of data to the

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Function ...

. He was President of Commission 6 from 1985 until 1988 (and Vicepresident from 1982 until 1985). He was associate professor at the

Charles University in Prague Charles University ( cs, Univerzita Karlova, UK; la, Universitas Carolina; german: Karls-Universität), also known as Charles University in Prague or historically as the University of Prague ( la, Universitas Pragensis, links=no), is the oldest an ...

and the

University of South Bohemia A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. Mrkos died in 1996 in Prague, aged 78. He discovered or co-discovered thirteen comets. Among these were the periodic comets

18D/Perrine–Mrkos 18D/Perrine–Mrkos is a periodic comet in the Solar System, originally discovered by the American-Argentine astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine (Lick Observatory, California, United States) on December 9, 1896. For some time it was thought to be ...

45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková is a short-period comet discovered by Minoru Honda December 3, 1948. It is named after Minoru Honda, Antonín Mrkos, and Ľudmila Pajdušáková. The object revolves around the Sun on an elliptical orbit with ...

124P/Mrkos This is a list of periodic comets that were numbered by the Minor Planet Center after having been observed on at least two occasions. Their orbital periods vary from 3.2 to 366 years. there are 436 numbered comets (1P–436P), most of them being ...

and

143P/Kowal–Mrkos 143P/Kowal–Mrkos is a periodic comet in the Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names ...

. He also discovered the bright non-periodic comet

C/1957 P1 Comet Mrkos, formally known as C/1957 P1 (old style ''1957d''), was a non-periodic comet discovered in 1957 by Antonín Mrkos. It was one of two bright comets that had their perihelion in 1957, the other being Comet Arend–Roland. Its peak magnit ...

(or, in the nomenclature of the time, comet 1957d). He discovered a number of

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s (273 in total), including the Amor asteroid 5797 Bivoj and

Trojan asteroid In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points and . Trojans can sha ...

3451 Mentor 3451 Mentor is a large Jupiter trojan from the Trojan camp, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 19 April 1984, by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos at the Kleť Observatory in the Czech Republic. The uncommon Jovian X-type asteroid i ...

. Mrkos named asteroids

6758 Jesseowens , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

in honour of

Jesse Owens James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens (September 12, 1913March 31, 1980) was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the long jump and was recognized in his lifet ...

and 2747 Český Krumlov after the historic town of the same name. Another main-belt asteroid, 3357 Tolstikov, was named in honour of

Yevgeny Tolstikov Yevgeny Ivanovich Tolstikov (russian: Евгений Иванович Толстиков; 9 February 1913 – 3 December 1987) was a Soviet polar explorer who was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1955 for heading the station "North P ...

with whom he had explored the Antarctic in his youth. Fellow astronomer

Lyudmila Chernykh Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh (russian: Людми́ла Ива́новна Черны́х, June 13, 1935 in Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast, Shuya, Ivanovo Oblast – July 28, 2017) was a Russian-born Soviet Union, Soviet astronomer, wife and colleague of Ni ...

named 1832 Mrkos in his honour, while Mrkos gratified her and her husband Nikolai with

2325 Chernykh 2325 Chernykh, provisional designation , is a dark Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 25 September 1979, by Czech astronomer Antonín Mrkos at the Klet Observatory in ...

List of discovered minor planets

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mrkos, Antonin 1918 births 1996 deaths People from Brno-Country District People from the Margraviate of Moravia Czechoslovak astronomers Czech astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets Charles University faculty University of South Bohemia faculty

Biography

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References