Sebastian Florian Hönig (born 1978) is a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, Professor of Observational & Computational Astrophysics (and Head of School elect) in the astronomy group of the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

School of Physics & Astronomy, and discoverer of

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s 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 ...

Career and research

Hönig works on the theory and observations of

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits a significant amount of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, with characteristics indicating that this luminosity is not produced by the stars. Such e ...

(AGN), dust tori and dusty winds. He received his PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) from the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

with work carried our in the Infrared Interferometry group at the

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfRA) (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie'') is located in Bonn, Germany. It is one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft). History By com ...

. During this time he developed a new

Radiative transfer Radiative transfer (also called radiation transport) is the physical phenomenon of energy transfer in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The propagation of radiation through a medium is affected by absorption, emission, and scattering process ...

to interpret

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

observations of AGN. In 2010, Hönig received a DFG Fellowship and moved to the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

working with Robert Antonucci. During this time, he used

VLTI The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is an astronomical facility operated since 1998 by the European Southern Observatory, located on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each equipped with a ...

observations of two

Seyfert galaxies Seyfert galaxies are one of the two largest groups of active galactic nucleus, active galaxies, along with quasar host galaxies. They have quasar-like Active galactic nucleus, nuclei (very luminous sources of electromagnetic radiation that are o ...

to show that dusty winds contribute significantly to the infrared radiation from these objects. Hönig received a

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first wo ...

(2014) and an ERC Starting Grant (2015) at the

to study this phenomenon in more detail. He is involved in the development of instruments for the

Paranal Observatory Paranal Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). It is located in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile on Cerro Paranal at altitude, south of Antofagasta. By total light-collecting area, ...

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 m ...

(ESO). Hönig is Co-Investigator of GRAVITY+, an upgrade to the

GRAVITY In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

instrument. He is member of the Time Domain Extragalactic Survey (TiDES) using the 4MOST instrument at ESO's

VISTA Vista may refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 * VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) a medical records system of the United States ...

telescope and leads the AGN

reverberation mapping Reverberation mapping (or Echo mapping) is an astrophysical technique for measuring the structure of the broad-line region (BLR) around a supermassive black hole at the center of an active galaxy, and thus estimating the hole's mass. It is c ...

sub-survey.

Comets and minor planets

Hönig has identified 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 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 (Minor planet provisional designation, 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 C ...

, discovered by Charles Juels and Paulo R. Holvorcem in 2001, was named in his honor ().

List of discovered minor planets

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

Career and research

Comets and minor planets

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References

External links