George Herbig

George Howard Herbig (January 2, 1920 – October 12, 2013) was an astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.^[1] He is perhaps best known for the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects.^[2][3]

Background

Born in 1920 in Wheeling, West Virginia,^[4] Herbig received his Ph.D in 1948 at the University of California, Berkeley; his dissertation is entitled A Study of Variable Stars in Nebulosity. His specialty was stars at an early stage of evolution (a class of intermediate mass pre–main sequence stars are named Herbig Ae/Be stars after him) and the interstellar medium. He was perhaps best known for his discovery, with Guillermo Haro, of the Herbig–Haro objects; bright patches of nebulosity excited by bipolar outflow from a star being born. Herbig has also made prominent contributions to the field of diffuse interstellar band (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 of the American Astronomical Society (1955)^[5]
• Foreign Scientific Member, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the AAS (1975)^[6]
• Médaille, Université de Liège (1969)
• Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1980)^[1]
• Petrie Prize and Lectureship of the Canadian Astronomical Society (1995)

Named after him

Herbig–Haro object (HH) 212.^[7]

• Asteroid 11754 Herbig
• Herbig Ae/Be stars
• Herbig–Haro objects

Selected publications

• "High-Resolution Spectroscopy of FU Orionis Stars", ApJ 595 (2003) 384–411 ^[8]
• "The Young Cluster IC 5146", AJ 123 (2002) 304–327 ^[9]
• "Barnard's Merope Nebula Revisited: New Observational Results", AJ 121 (2001) 3138–3148 ^[10]
• "The Diffuse Interstellar Bands", Annu. Rev. Astrophys. 33 (1995) 19–73
• "The Unusual Pre-Main-Sequence star 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

References

1. 1 2 "The Bruce Medalists: George Howard Herbig". Retrieved 2010-02-01. 
2. ↑ "George Herbig (1920-2013)". AstroWright. 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2013-11-03. 
3. ↑ Reipurth, B. (2013). "George Herbig (1920–2013) Astronomer who pioneered studies of young stars". Nature. 503 (7477): 470. Bibcode:2013Natur.503..470R. doi:10.1038/503470a. PMID 24284724. 
4. ↑
5. ↑ "Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 2010-02-01. 
6. ↑ "Henry Norris Russell Lectureship". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 2010-02-01. 
7. ↑ "Outbursts from a newborn star". Retrieved 12 October 2015. 
8. ↑ "High-Resolution Spectroscopy of FU Orionis Stars". Adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-14. 
9. ↑ "The Young Cluster IC 5146". Adsabs.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2013-10-14. 
10. ↑ Herbig, G. H.; Simon, T. (2001). "Barnard's Merope Nebula Revisited: New Observational Results". The Astronomical Journal. 121 (6): 3138–3148. Bibcode:2001AJ....121.3138H. doi:10.1086/321077. 

Further reading

• Reipurth, Bo. GEORGE HERBIG and Early Stellar Evolution. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, Special Publications No. 1.