Luboš Kohoutek (; 29 January 1935 – 30 December 2023) was a Czech astronomer 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 num ...

and

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, including Comet Kohoutek which was visible to the naked eye in 1973. He also discovered a large number of

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

Biography

Kohoutek was born on 29 January 1935 to Hynek and Jarmila Kohoutek. His brother was the Czech composer Ctirad Kohoutek. Kohoutek was interested in astronomy since high school. He studied physics and astronomy at universities in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

(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 in Hamburg. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia (1968) he decided to stay in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

(1970). His discoveries in the 1970s made him well-known in the media. In later years, Kohoutek worked in observatories in Spain and Chile, studying

planetary nebula A planetary nebula 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 planets. The ...

e. He officially retired in 2001, yet kept researching at the Hamburg-Bergedorf Observatory. Kohoutek published 162 scientific works. S74-15064 Lobus Kohoutek

Kohoutek is most famous for his discovery of numerous

s, including periodic comets 75D/Kohoutek and 76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura, as well as the famously disappointing " Comet Kohoutek" (C/1973 E1). Kohoutek also discovered numerous

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

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 Ear ...

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, ...

. The

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

asteroid 1850 Kohoutek was named after him. Kohoutek died on 30 December 2023, at the age of 88.

Discoveries

Kohoutek discovered

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

SN 1973f, 5 comets, and 76 minor planets.

List of discovered comets

* 75D/Kohoutek * 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 2023 deaths Charles University alumni Czechoslovak astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets * Masaryk University alumni People from Zábřeh Academic staff of the University of Hamburg