José Luis Sérsic (6 May 1933 – 19 July 1993) was an Argentine astronomer who studied the morphology of
galaxies
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...
. He is most widely known for the mathematical model of galaxy brightness, the
Sersic profile, which bears his name. José Luis Sérsic first published his law in 1963.
[J. L. Sérsic (1963)]
Influence of the atmospheric and instrumental dispersion on the brightness distribution in a galaxy
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The asteroid 2691 Sersic is named in his honour.
References
20th-century Argentine astronomers
Argentine people of Croatian descent
1933 births
1993 deaths
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