Marc Aaronson (24 August 1950
– 30 April 1987) was an American
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 ...
.
Life
Aaronson was born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
He was educated at the
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...
, where he received a
BS in 1972. He completed his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1977 at Harvard University with a dissertation on the near-infrared aperture photometry of galaxies. He joined
Steward Observatory
Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were f ...
at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
as a postdoctoral research associate in 1977 and became an Associate Professor of Astronomy in 1983. Aaronson and
Jeremy Mould won the
George Van Biesbroeck Prize
The George Van Biesbroeck Prize is an award for long-term achievements in the field of astronomy. According to the American Astronomical Society awards website; "The Van Biesbroeck prize is normally awarded every two years and honors a living indi ...
in 1981 and the
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 1984 from the
American Astronomical Society. He was also awarded the
Bart J. Bok Prize in 1983 from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
.
His work concentrated on three fields: the determination of the
Hubble constant
Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther they are, the faster they are moving ...
(H
0) using the
Tully–Fisher relation
In astronomy, the Tully–Fisher relation (TFR) is an empirical relationship between the mass or intrinsic luminosity of a spiral galaxy and its asymptotic rotation velocity or emission line width. It was first published in 1977 by astronomer ...
, the study of
carbon rich stars, and the velocity distribution of those stars in
dwarf spheroidal galaxies.
Aaronson was one of the first astronomers to attempt to image
dark matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not a ...
using infrared imaging. He imaged infrared halos of unknown matter around galaxies that could be dark matter.
Death
Aaronson died in an accident in the evening hours of 30 April 1987, in the dome of the 4-m
Mayall Telescope of the
Kitt Peak National Observatory
The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...
. He was killed when he was crushed by the hatch leading out to the catwalk; the hatch was slammed shut on him by a ladder which extended down from the turning telescope dome. A switch on the hatch automatically shut down the dome rotation motor; however, the momentum of the dome kept it moving for a few moments, allowing it to hit the outward opening hatch. This design flaw was corrected after the accident by trimming the ladder and redesigning the hatch to slide sideways, parallel to the dome wall.
Asteroid 3277 Aaronson is named in his honor.
The Marc Aaronson Memorial Lectureship
The
Marc Aaronson Memorial Lectureship, promoting and recognizing excellence in astronomical research, is held every 18 months by the University of Arizona and Steward Observatory as a tribute to his memory.
Lecturers:
* 1989 Dr.
Robert Kirshner, Harvard University
* 1990 Dr.
Kenneth C. Freeman
Kenneth Charles Freeman (born 27 August 1940) is an Australian astronomer and astrophysicist who is currently Duffield Professor of Astronomy in the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australi ...
, Mount Stromlo/Siding Spring Observatories, Australia
* 1992 Dr.
John Huchra, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
* 1993 Dr.
Nick Scoville, California Institute of Technology
* 1994 Dr.
Wendy Freedman, The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington
* 1996 Dr.
J. Anthony Tyson
John Anthony Tyson (''aka'' J. Anthony Tyson or Tony Tyson; born 5 April 1940, Pasadena) is an American physicist and astronomer.
Tyson received in 1962 his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and in 1967 his Ph. D. from the University of ...
, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies
* 1998 Dr.
John C. Mather
John Cromwell Mather (born August 7, 1946, Roanoke, Virginia) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot.
This work helped ...
, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
* 1999 Dr.
Bohdan Paczynski Bohdan may refer to:
* Bohdan, a Slavic masculine name, a variant spelling of Bogdan (which includes a list of people named Bohdan as well as Bogdan)
* Bohdan, Podlaskie Voivodeship
Bohdan is a village
A village is a clustered human s ...
, Princeton University
* 2001 Dr.
Ewine van Dishoeck
Ewine Fleur van Dishoeck (born 13 June 1955, in Leiden) is a Dutch astronomer and chemist. She is Professor of Molecular Astrophysics at Leiden Observatory, and served as the President of the International Astronomical Union (2018–2021) and a ...
, Leiden University, The Netherlands
* 2002 Dr.
Geoffrey W. Marcy, University of California, Berkeley
* 2004 Dr.
Lyman Page Jr., Princeton University
* 2005 Dr.
Brian Schmidt
Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's M ...
, Mt. Stromlo/Siding Spring Observatories, Australia
* 2007 Dr.
Andrea M. Ghez, University of California, Los Angeles
* 2008 Dr.
Michael E. Brown
Michael E. Brown (born June 5, 1965) is an American astronomer, who has been professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including ...
, California Institute of Technology
* 2010 Dr.
J. Davy Kirkpatrick, California Institute of Technology
* 2012 Dr.
Pieter van Dokkum, Yale University
* 2014 Dr.
Alice Shapley, University of California, Los Angeles
* 2015 Dr.
Vasily Belokurov
Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian: Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek origin and corresponds to ''Basil''. It may refer to:
*Vasili I of Moscow Grand Prince from 1389–1425
*Vasili II of Moscow Grand Prince fro ...
, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK
* 2019 Dr.
Jenny Greene
Jenny Greene (born October 9, 1978) is an Astrophysicist and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. She is notable for her work on supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they reside. Her work also involves a partne ...
, Princeton University
See also
*
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aaronson, Marc
California Institute of Technology alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
University of Arizona staff
1950 births
1987 deaths
20th-century American astronomers
Academics from Los Angeles
Scientists from Los Angeles
Accidental deaths in Arizona