Michael Francis A'Hearn (November 17, 1940 – May 29, 2017) was an American

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

and astronomy professor at the

University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) at the University of Maryland, College Park, is home to ten academic departments and a dozen interdisciplinary research centers and institutes. CMNS is one of 13 schools and colle ...

. He was also the principal investigator for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

EPOXI ''EPOXI'' was a compilation of NASA Discovery program missions led by the University of Maryland and principal investigator Michael A'Hearn, with co-operation from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ball Aerospace. ''EPOXI'' uses the '' Deep I ...

mission.

Career

He received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in science at

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

and his Ph.D. in

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. He was the principal investigator for the

'' 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. In June 1986, the main-belt asteroid 3192 A'Hearn, discovered by American astronomer

Edward Bowell Edward L. G. "Ted" Bowell (born 1943 in London, died August 21 2023 in Flagstaff, Arizona), was an American astronomer. Bowell was educated at Emanuel School London, University College, London, and the University of Paris. He was principal invest ...

at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station in Flagstaff, Arizona, was named after him in honor of his contributions to

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

ary science. In 2008, he received the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize. He died on May 29, 2017, at the age of 76.

Honors

Awards

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbrv. ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under its guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually significant scien ...

(2006) * Gerard P. Kuiper Prize (2008) *

(2012) * Gauß-Professur (2014) *

NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal NASA's Exceptional Public Service Medal is a United States government award awarded to any non-Government individual or to an individual who was not a Government employee during the period in which the service was performed for sustained performa ...

(2017)

Eponym

* 3192 A'Hearn, an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

of the inner

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

named after A'Hearn

References

External links

Michael F. A'Hearn's homepage

Kuiper Prize website of the American Astronomical Society

Nasa bio on Deep Impact website

NASA EPSM award website
{{DEFAULTSORT:A'Hearn, Michael 1940 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American astronomers Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni People from Wilmington, Delaware