John Keith Davies (born 1955) is a British

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 ...

Discovery

Davies was born in

Liverpool, England Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. Whilst at

Leicester University , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

, he discovered the source of the

Geminid The Geminids are a prolific meteor shower caused by the object 3200 Phaethon, which is thought to be a Palladian asteroid with a " rock comet" orbit. This would make the Geminids, together with the Quadrantids, the only major meteor showers ...

meteors, the asteroid called

3200 Phaethon 3200 Phaethon (previously sometimes spelled Phaeton), provisional designation , is an active Apollo asteroid with an orbit that brings it closer to the Sun than any other named asteroid (though there are numerous unnamed asteroids with smaller ...

OPTICON project

In 2001 he began as Project Scientist for the OPTICON project, an organisation with the goal of integrating all of European astronomers.biography
21:10 10.10.2011

References

Publications

"Astronomy from Space" (Wiley-Praxis Series in Astronomy & Astrophysics), publication date 1997, Wiley-Blackwell, , hardcover, 346 pages, illustrated "Cosmic Impact", publication date 1986-09-01, St. Martin's Press, , hardcover, 192 pages, illustrated. {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John K. 1955 births Living people 20th-century British astronomers 21st-century British astronomers