Sylvain Julien Victor Arend (6 August 1902 – 18 February 1992) was a Belgian

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 ...

born in

Robelmont Robelmont (Gaumais: ''Roubiémont'') is a village of Wallonia and a district of the municipality of Meix-devant-Virton, located in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium. The asteroid 1145 Robelmonte is named after the village, in honour of the ast ...

, Luxembourg province, Belgium. His main interest was

astrometry Astrometry is a branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies. It provides the kinematics and physical origin of the Solar System and this galaxy, the Milky Way. His ...

. Together with Georges Roland, he discovered the bright

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 ...

C/1956 R1 (Arend-Roland). He also discovered, or co-discovered, the periodic comets 49P/Arend-Rigaux and 50P/Arend, Nova Scuti 1952, and a number of

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 notably the

Amor asteroid The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the archetype object 1221 Amor . The orbital perihelion of these objects is close to, but greater than, the orbital aphelion of Earth (i.e., the objects do not cross Earth's orb ...

1916 Boreas and the

Trojan asteroid In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points and . Trojans can sha ...

1583 Antilochus 1583 Antilochus is a large Jupiter trojan from the Greek camp, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 19 September 1950, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at Uccle Observatory in Belgium, and later named after the hero Antilochus fr ...

. He also discovered 1652 Hergé which is named after

Hergé Georges Prosper Remi (; 22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), known by the pen name Hergé (; ), from the French pronunciation of his reversed initials ''RG'', was a Belgian cartoonist. He is best known for creating ''The Adventures of Tintin'', ...

, the creator of ''

The Adventures of Tintin ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 bande dessinée#Formats, ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgians, Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one ...

''. The asteroid 1563 Noël is named after his son, Emanuel Arend. In 1948 Arend started together with sixteen other people the skeptic organisation

Comité Para The Comité Para, in full Comité belge pour l'Analyse Critique des parasciences ("Belgian Committee for the Critical Analysis of Parasciences"), is a Francophone Belgian skeptical non-profit organisation. Founded in 1949, the Comité Para regar ...

. The outer main-belt asteroid 1502 Arenda was named in his honor.

List of discovered minor planets

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arend, Sylvain 1902 births 1992 deaths 20th-century Belgian astronomers Belgian skeptics Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets * People from Meix-devant-Virton