Holger Pedersen (born 3 November 1946), Emeritus at the

Niels Bohr Institute The Niels Bohr Institute (Danish: ''Niels Bohr Institutet'') is a research institute of the University of Copenhagen. The research of the institute spans astronomy, geophysics, nanotechnology, particle physics, quantum mechanics and biophysics ...

is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

at the European Southern Observatory. He specialises in

gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millise ...

s, meteorites and

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

s. Asteroids 9266 Holger and 3312 Pedersen are named after him.

Amateur archaeology

In his earlier years, Pedersen was a keen amateur archaeologist on the Danish island of

Funen Funen ( da, Fyn, ), with an area of , is the third-largest island of Denmark, after Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy. It is the 165th-largest island in the world. It is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 469,947 as of ...

. In this capacity, in 1985 as a gift to the Odense City Museums 125 year jubilee, he donated a sum of money for the creation of a legate for education of fellow amateur archaeologists.

2015 Discovery of astronomical photographs

In 2015 Pedersen discovered a collection in the archives of the Bohr Institute of more than 150

photographic plates Photographic plates preceded photographic film as a capture medium in photography, and were still used in some communities up until the late 20th century. The light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts was coated on a glass plate, typically thinn ...

of astronomical observations, shot from 1895 to 1957. The glass plates were well preserved and clear shots of lunar eclipses, the stellar constellations and the passing of the 1957 Comet Arend–Roland. Pedersen called the find exciting, as per their being

archaeoastronomy Archaeoastronomy (also spelled archeoastronomy) is the interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary study of how people in the past "have understood the phenomena in the sky, how they used these phenomena and what role the sky played in their cul ...

, showing how humans saw the sky a century ago. Especially interesting among the plates in the collection is a rare copy of a plate of a solar eclipse shot in 1919 by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

astronomer Arthur Eddington.

References

1946 births Living people 20th-century Danish astronomers 21st-century Danish astronomers {{Europe-astronomer-stub