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Brian Geoffrey Marsden (5 August 1937 18 November 2010)[1][2] was a British astronomer and the longtime director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (director emeritus from 2006 to 2010).[3]

Brian Geoffrey Marsden
Born(1937-08-05)August 5, 1937
Cambridge, England
DiedNovember 18, 2010(2010-11-18) (aged 73)
Alma materNew College, Oxford
Yale University
Known forMinor Planet Center

Education


Marsden was educated at The Perse School in Cambridge, New College, Oxford (BA and MA) and Yale University (PhD). His thesis advisor was Dirk Brouwer.


Life


Marsden specialized in celestial mechanics and astrometry, collecting data on the positions of asteroids and comets and computing their orbits, often from minimal observational information and providing their future positions on International Astronomical Union (IAU) circulars. In addition to serving as MPC director since 1978, he served as the director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) from 1968 to 1999.[4] He was president of IAU Commission 6 (2000–2003) and Commission 20 (1976–1979).[5]

Marsden helped recover once lost asteroids and lost comets. Some asteroid and comet discoveries of previous decades were "lost" because not enough observational data had been obtained at the time to determine a reliable enough orbit to know where to look for re-observation at future dates. Occasionally, a newly discovered object turns out to be a rediscovery of a previously lost object, which can be determined by calculating its orbit backwards into the past and matching calculated positions with the previously recorded positions of the lost object. In the case of comets this is especially tricky because of nongravitational forces that can affect their orbits (one of which is emission of jets of gas from the comet nucleus), but Marsden has specialized in calculating such nongravitational forces. Notably, he successfully predicted the 1992 return of the once-lost Comet Swift-Tuttle.

In May 1993, Marsden concluded that the trajectory of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 would put it onto a course to collide with Jupiter in July 1994, marking the first ever time that a cometary-planetary impact was successfully predicted.

In 1998, he calculated that an asteroid, (35396) 1997 XF11 had a small probability of striking the Earth in 2028. Marsden chose to issue a press release, which Robert Roy Britt called a false alarm.[6]

"... astronomers created a media storm by announcing that an asteroid could collide with Earth in 2028, only to revise the estimates hours later."—Gretchen Vogel, Science, 20 March 1998

Other asteroid researchers demonstrated within hours that the computation was in error.[7] Marsden himself admitted the announcement was a strategy which needed "rethinking", and NASA asked astronomers not to sound a public alarm like that again but to communicate with each other.[8] He took some criticism for publicizing this prediction right when movie companies were publicizing films like Deep Impact (see also Science by press conference). However, Marsden justified his actions with the argument that the problem of detecting asteroids needs more attention:

"Much as the incident was bad for my reputation, we needed a scare like that to bring attention to this problem." (Scientific American magazine, 2003)[9]

Follow-up work determined that an impact would be unlikely.[10]

He once proposed that Pluto should be cross-listed as both a planet and a minor planet and assigned the asteroid number 10000; however, this proposal was not accepted. A similar proposal was, however, finally accepted in 2006 when Pluto was designated minor planet 134340 and also declared a dwarf planet.

Marsden campaigned to reclassify Pluto as one of the newly discovered and rapidly growing class of Trans-Neptunian objects, the discovery of which was made possible by CCD-array detectors and dedicated surveys or incidental discoveries of these objects with relatively large telescopes. Partly at his urging, the International Astronomical Union voted at a meeting in Prague in 2006 to designate Pluto and three asteroids “dwarf planets.”, which are objects that have not dynamically cleared their orbits of other debris (except, e.g., for collections of objects stably librating dynamically at the "Lagrange-points", the libration points L4 and L5 of large, classical planets, as in the case of the Jovian "Trojan" asteroids).[9]

Asteroids discovered: 1
37556 SvyaztieAug 28, 1982with N. S. ChernykhMPC

Family


He married Nancy Lou Zissell; they had a daughter, Cynthia, and a son, Jonathan.[10] He named minor planet 2298 Cindijon after them.[11] Brian credited his mother for inspiring his interest in astronomy when she showed him the partial solar eclipse of September 10, 1942; that the date and time could be projected far in advance very much impressed him.[12]


Honours


Awards

Named after him


References


  1. Gingerich, O. (2010). "Brian Marsden (1937–2010)". Nature. 468 (7327): 1042. Bibcode:2010Natur.468.1042G. doi:10.1038/4681042a. PMID 21179155.
  2. "MPEC 2010-W10 : BRIAN MARSDEN (1937 August 5-2010 November 18)". Minor Planet Center. 18 November 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2010.
  3. DENNIS HEVESI (22 November 2010). "Brian Marsden, Tracker of Comets, Dies at 73". The New York Times.
  4. Kelly Beatty (18 November 2010). "Brian G. Marsden (1937-2010)". Sky and Telescope.
  5. "Astronomer Brian G. Marsden dies".
  6. Pointless Asteroid Scare Archived 2011-01-09 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Browne, Malcolm W. (14 March 1998). "Frantic Hunt Found Photos That Deflated Asteroid Fears". The New York Times.
  8. Reichhardt, Tony. "Run for your lives! (Uh, never mind.)".
  9. Death of Brian Marsden
  10. Thomas H. Maugh II (20 November 2010). "Brian Marsden dies at 73; astronomer who tracked comets and asteroids". Los Angeles Times.
  11. Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(2298) Cindijon". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (2298) Cindijon. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 187. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_2299. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
  12. "Brian Marsden". The Economist. 2 December 2010. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  13. "Division on Dynamical Astronomy | Division on Dynamical Astronomy".
  14. "Gruppe 2: Fysikkfag (herunder astronomi, fysikk og geofysikk)" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Retrieved 7 October 2010.



На других языках


[de] Brian Marsden

Brian Geoffrey Marsden (* 5. August 1937 in Cambridge, England; † 18. November 2010 in Burlington, Massachusetts) war ein britischer Astronom, der in den USA lebte und arbeitete. Er war am Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge (Massachusetts) tätig und in den Jahren von 1978 bis 2006 Direktor des Minor Planet Center.
- [en] Brian G. Marsden

[es] Brian Marsden

Brian G. Marsden (1937-18 de noviembre de 2010)[1] fue un astrónomo británico, director del Centro de Planetas Menores.

[it] Brian Marsden

Brian Geoffrey Marsden (Cambridge, 5 agosto 1937 – 18 novembre 2010) è stato un astronomo britannico specializzato in meccanica celeste ed astrometria. Raccoglieva dati sulle posizioni degli asteroidi e delle comete e calcolava le loro orbite.

[ru] Марсден, Брайан

Брайан Джеффри Марсден (англ. Brian Geoffrey Marsden; 5 августа 1937, Кембридж, Англия, — 18 ноября 2010[1]) — английский и американский астроном, первооткрыватель астероидов. Работал в Смитсонианской астрофизической обсерватории в Кембридже (Массачусетс), с 1978 по 2006 годы являлся руководителем Центра малых планет.



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