Sebastian Florian Hönig (born 1978) is a German
astronomer, Professor of Observational & Computational Astrophysics (and Head of School elect) in the astronomy group of the
University of Southampton School of Physics & Astronomy, and discoverer of
minor planets and
comets.
Career and research
Hönig works on the theory and observations of
active galactic nuclei (AGN), dust tori and dusty winds. He received his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the
University of Bonn with work carried our in the Infrared Interferometry group at the
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy. During this time he developed a new
Radiative transfer to interpret
infrared observations of AGN. In 2010, Hönig received a
DFG Fellowship and moved to the
University of California, Santa Barbara working with Robert Antonucci. During this time, he used
VLTI observations of two
Seyfert galaxies to show that dusty winds contribute significantly to the infrared radiation from these objects. Hönig received a
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first ...
(2014) and an ERC Starting Grant (2015) at the
University of Southampton to study this phenomenon in more detail.
He is involved in the development of instruments for the
Paranal Observatory of the
European Southern Observatory
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 mem ...
(ESO). Hönig is Co-Investigator of GRAVITY+, an upgrade to the
GRAVITY instrument. He is member of the Time Domain Extragalactic Survey (TiDES) using the 4MOST instrument at ESO's
VISTA telescope and leads the AGN
reverberation mapping sub-survey.
Comets and minor planets
Hönig has identified 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 and correctly identified the periodic comet
P/2007 R5 despite it having no tail. On 22 July 2002, he discovered comet C/2002 O4
and is credited by the
MPC MPC, Mpc or mpc may refer to:
Astronomy
* Megaparsec (Mpc), unit of length used in astronomy
* Minor Planet Center, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
** ''Minor Planet Circulars'' (MPC, M.P.C. or MPCs), astronomical publication from the Minor ...
with the discovery of 560 numbered minor planets during 2001–2008.
On 7 January 2004, the outer main-belt asteroid
51983 Hönig
51983 Hönig, provisional designation , is a Hildian asteroid from the outermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 19 September 2001, by astronomers Charles Juels and Paulo Holvorcem at t ...
, discovered by
Charles Juels
Charles W. Juels (1944 – January 21, 2009) was an American amateur astronomer and psychiatrist by profession, who became a prolific discoverer of minor planets after his retirement.
Juels was born in New York City in 1944, and grew up in Cinc ...
and
Paulo R. Holvorcem
Paulo Renato Centeno Holvorcem (born 10 July 1967) is a Brazilian amateur astronomer and mathematician who lives in Brasilia, Brazil.
He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery or co-di ...
in 2001, was named in his honor ().
List of discovered minor planets
See also
*
List of minor planet discoverers
References
External links
Homepage of Sebastian Hönig*
Identification of a new short-period comet near the sun, Sebastian F. Hoenig, arXiv:astro-ph/0509168
MPEC 2002-O45 : COMET C/2002 O4 (HOENIG)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honig, Sebastian
1978 births
Discoverers of comets
Discoverers of minor planets
*
21st-century German astronomers
Living people
Academics of the University of Southampton