André Fernand Brahic (30 November 1942 – 15 May 2016) was a French astrophysicist. He is known for his discovery (1984) of the

rings of Neptune The rings of Neptune consist primarily of five principal Planetary ring, rings. They were first discovered (as "arcs") by simultaneous observations of a stellar occultation on 22 July 1984 by André Brahic's and William B. Hubbard's teams at La S ...

Biography

Brahic was born in 1942 in Paris. His family originated from the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

village of Petit-Brahic in the Banne commune of southern France. Brahic had stated that many of his ancestors died of

silicosis Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. It is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of Nodule (medicine), nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneum ...

, but his father quit the mines to work for the railway industry. Brahic was first introduced into the field of

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline, James Keeler, said, astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the ...

Evry Schatzman Evry Léon Schatzman (16 September 1920 – 25 April 2010) was a French scientist hailed as "the father of modern French astrophysics". Background His father, Benjamin Schatzman, was a dentist born in Tulcea, Romania, and emigrated at a young ag ...

, one of the foremost astrophysicist in France at the time. In the 1980s, Brahic became a specialist in exploring the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

NASA

Voyager program The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter ...

and the Cassini spacecraft. Brahic was a member of the

French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA ( French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and sec ...

and a professor at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. He was also on the imaging team for the ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...

'' spacecraft. Brahic wrote several books, explaining astrophysics to the general audience. His last book "Worlds Elsewhere; Are We Alone" was published in 2015. Brahic died of cancer in Paris on 15 May 2016. He was 73.

Discovery of the Rings of Neptune

The rings of

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

were first discovered (as "arcs") in 1984 at European Southern Observatory and at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory by André Brahic's and William Hubbard's team. Brahic named the arcs, known today as parts of the Adams ring - Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité (Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity), after the national motto of France.

Awards and honors

In 1990, the asteroid 3488 Brahic was named in his honor. In 2001, he was given the

Carl Sagan Medal The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science is an award established by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society to recognize and honor outstanding communication by an active plane ...

External links

list of books written by Andre Brahic

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brahic, Andre 1942 births 2016 deaths 20th-century French astronomers French astrophysicists Neptune Academic staff of the University of Paris Deaths from cancer in France French planetary scientists