Michael A'Hearn

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Michael A'Hearn
Photograph of A'Hearn.
Born	(1940-11-17) November 17, 1940 Wilmington, Delaware
Nationality	American
Fields	Astronomy
Alma mater	Boston College University of Wisconsin–Madison
Notable awards	Gerard P. Kuiper Prize

Michael Francis A'Hearn (born November 17, 1940) is an American astronomer and professor at the University of Maryland.^[1] He is also the principal investigator for NASA's EPOXI mission.

Career

He received his B.A. in science at Boston College and his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was the principal investigator for the NASA Deep Impact mission. He has aided in the development of systems for surveying abundances in comets as well as techniques for determining the sizes of cometary nuclei which uses optical and infrared measurements.

His studies focus on comets as well as asteroids and he also supervises numerous graduate students. He is an elected fellow of the AAAS. He has authored over 100 papers published in journals and is also an avid sailor who has a commercial coast guard license.^[2]

In 1986, Asteroid 3192 was named after A'Hearn to honor his contributions to cometary science.

In 2008, he received the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize.

Honors

Awards

Gerard P. Kuiper Prize (2008)

Eponym

3192 A'Hearn, an asteroid named after A'Hearn

References

External links

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 32112197 LCCN: n95095656 ISNI: 0000 0000 3089 4050 BNF: cb125524316

Persondata
Name	A'Hearn, Michael
Alternative names	A'Hearn, Michael F.
Short description	American astronomer and professor
Date of birth	1940
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death

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