Luboš Kohoutek (, born 29 January 1935) is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

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 ...

and a

discoverer of minor planets This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 numb ...

and

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

s, including

Comet Kohoutek Comet Kohoutek ( formally designated C/1973 E1 and formerly as 1973 XII and 1973f) is a comet that passed close to the Sun towards the end of 1973. Early predictions of the comet's peak brightness suggested that it had the potential to become o ...

which was visible to the naked eye in 1973. He also discovered a large number of

planetary nebulae A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated ...

Biography

Kohoutek was born in 1935 to Hynek and Jarmila Kohoutek. His brother was the Czech composer

Ctirad Kohoutek Ctirad Kohoutek (18 March 1929 in Zábřeh, Czechoslovakia – 19 September 2011 in Brno, Czech Republic) was a contemporary Czech composer, music theorist, and pedagogue. Life In 1948–1949 he studied composition, musical theory and conductin ...

. Kohoutek has been interested in astronomy since high school. He studied physics and astronomy at universities in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

(finished 1958). Then he started to work in the Astronomical Institute of

Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (Czech: ''Československá akademie věd'', Slovak: ''Česko-slovenská akadémia vied'') was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Czech Academy of Science ...

, where he published a well-cited catalogue (''Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae'', 1967). Kohoutek obtained a long term position at the

Bergedorf Observatory Hamburg Observatory (german: Hamburger Sternwarte) is an astronomical observatory located in the Bergedorf borough of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is owned and operated by the University of Hamburg, Germany since 1968, although it ...

in Hamburg. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia (1968) he decided to stay in West Germany (1970). His discoveries in the 1970s made him well-known in the media. In later years Kohoutek worked in observatories in Spain and Chile, working with

planetary nebula A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to ...

e. He officially retired in 2001, yet he is still researching at the

Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory Hamburg Observatory (german: Hamburger Sternwarte) is an astronomical observatory located in the Bergedorf borough of the city of Hamburg in northern Germany. It is owned and operated by the University of Hamburg, Germany since 1968, although it ...

. Kohoutek has published 162 scientific works. Kohoutek is most famous for his discovery of numerous

s, including periodic comets

75D/Kohoutek 75D/Kohoutek is a short-period comet discovered in February 1975, by Luboš Kohoutek. Even on the discovery plate the comet was only apparent magnitude 14. Assuming the comet has not disintegrated the 2020-2021 perihelion passage is only expecte ...

and 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura, as well as the famously disappointing "

" (C/1973 E1). He has also discovered numerous

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s, including the

Apollo asteroid The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth ...

1865 Cerberus 1865 Cerberus is a stony asteroid and near-Earth object of the Apollo group, approximately 1.6 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 26 October 1971, by Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek at the Hamburger Bergedorf Observatory, Germany, and ...

. The

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

asteroid

1850 Kohoutek 1850 Kohoutek, provisional designation , is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 6 kilometers in diameter. It was named after Czech astronomer Luboš Kohoutek. Discovery ''Kohoutek'' was discover ...

was named after him.

Discoveries

Kohoutek has discovered

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

SN 1973f and 5 comets as well as 76 minor planets.

List of discovered comets

* 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura *

C/1973 E1 (Kohoutek) * C/1969 O1-A (Kohoutek) * C/1973 D1 (Kohoutek)

List of discovered minor planets

References

External links

2011 interview with Luboš Kohoutek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kohoutek, Lubos 1935 births Charles University alumni Czechoslovak astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets * Living people Masaryk University alumni People from Zábřeh University of Hamburg faculty