Michel Hénon (born 1931 in Paris, France) is a mathematician and astronomer. He is currently at the Nice Observatory.
In astronomy, Hénon is well known for his contributions to stellar dynamics. In late 1960s and early 1970s he was involved in dynamical evolution of star clusters, in particular the globular clusters. He developed a numerical technique using Monte Carlo methods to follow the dynamical evolution of a spherical star cluster much faster than the so-called n-body methods.
In mathematics, he is well known for the Hénon map, a simple discrete dynamical system that exhibits chaotic behavior.
He has published a two-volume work on the restricted three-body problem.