George Howard Herbig (January 2, 1920 – October 12, 2013) 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 ...

at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Institute for Astronomy. He is perhaps best known for the discovery of

Herbig–Haro object Herbig–Haro (HH) objects are bright patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars. They are formed when narrow jets of partially ionised gas ejected by stars collide with nearby clouds of gas and dust at several hundred kilometres per s ...

Background

Born in 1920 in Wheeling, West Virginia, Herbig received 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 1948 at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

; his dissertation is titled ''A Study of

Variable Stars A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as e ...

in Nebulosity''.

Career

His specialty was

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

s at an early stage of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

(a class of intermediate mass pre–main sequence stars are named

Herbig Ae/Be stars A Herbig Ae/Be star (HAeBe) is a pre-main-sequence star – a young () star of spectral types A or B. These stars are still embedded in gas-dust envelopes and are sometimes accompanied by circumstellar disks. Hydrogen and calcium emission lines ...

after him) and the

interstellar medium In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...

. He was perhaps best known for his discovery, with Guillermo Haro, of the

s; bright patches of nebulosity excited by bipolar outflow from a star being born. Herbig also made prominent contributions to the field of

diffuse interstellar band Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are absorption features seen in the spectra of astronomical objects in the Milky Way and other galaxies. They are caused by the absorption of light by the interstellar medium. Circa 500 bands have now been seen, ...

(DIB) research, especially through a series of nine articles published between 1963 and 1995 entitled "The diffuse interstellar bands."

Honors

Awards *

Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36, or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...

of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

(1955) *Foreign Scientific Member, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg * Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the AAS (1975) *Médaille, Université de Liège (1969) *

Bruce Medal The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was fi ...

of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1980) *Petrie Prize and Lectureship of the Canadian Astronomical Society (1995) Named after him Herbig-Haro 212 jets

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. ...

11754 Herbig *

Selected publications

*"High-Resolution Spectroscopy of FU Orionis Stars", ApJ 595 (2003) 384–411 *"The Young Cluster

IC 5146 IC 5146 (also Caldwell 19, Sh 2-125, Barnard 168, and the Cocoon Nebula) is a reflection nebula, reflection/emission nebula, emission nebula and Caldwell catalogue, Caldwell object in the constellation Cygnus (constellation), Cygnus. The NGC descr ...

", AJ 123 (2002) 304–327 *"Barnard's Merope Nebula Revisited: New Observational Results", AJ 121 (2001) 3138–3148 *"The

Diffuse Interstellar Bands Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) are absorption features seen in the spectra of astronomical objects in the Milky Way and other galaxies. They are caused by the absorption of light by the interstellar medium. Circa 500 bands have now been seen ...

"
Annu. Rev. Astrophys. 33 (1995) 19–73
*"The Unusual

Pre-Main-Sequence star A pre-main-sequence star (also known as a PMS star and PMS object) is a star in the stage when it has not yet reached the main sequence. Earlier in its life, the object is a protostar that grows by acquiring mass from its surrounding envelope of ...

VY Tauri"
ApJ 360 (1990) 639–649
*"The Structure and Spectrum of R Monocerotis"
ApJ 152 (1968) 439
*"The Spectra of Two Nebulous Objects Near NGC 1999"
ApJ 113 (1951) 697

Background

Career

Honors

Selected publications

References

Further reading