Harold Spencer Jones
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE (March 29, 1890 – November 3, 1960) was a British astronomer. His surname was "Spencer Jones".
In 1913 he became Chief Assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory. In 1933 he became Astronomer Royal. He was president of the International Astronomical Union from 1945–1948.
He determined the solar parallax from observations of 433 Eros during its close approach in 1930–1931.
He (in)famously said "Space travel is bunk" two weeks before the Sputnik launch.
[edit] Honours
Awards
Named after him
- Spencer Jones crater on the Moon
- Jones crater on Mars (erroneously, since "Spencer" was not his middle name but part of his full surname)
- Asteroid 3282 Spencer Jones
[edit] External links
- Obituary Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (1961 JRASC..55..117S)
| Preceded by Frank Dyson |
Astronomer Royal 1933–1955 |
Succeeded by Richard van der Riet Woolley |
