Zdeněk_Sekanina

Zdenek Sekanina

Zdenek Sekanina

Czech-American astronomer

Zdeněk Sekanina (born 12 June 1936) is a Czech-American astronomer and scientist.

Zdeněk Sekanina in 1974

In 1959, Sekanina studied astronomy at Charles University in Prague, where he graduated in 1963.[1] After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, he emigrated to the United States. Since 1980, he has been working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

His main areas of professional study are meteors and interplanetary dust as well as the study of comets. During the course of his investigations, he dealt with Halley's comet,[2] the Tunguska event,[3] as well as the break-up and impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 on Jupiter.[4]

He was involved in the data evaluation of the Giotto, Stardust, and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory missions.

The asteroid 1913 Sekanina was named after him.

References

  1. [1]
    "JPL Science: Zdenek Sekanina". science.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  2. [2]
    Sekanina, Z.; Larson, S. M. (May 1986). "Dust jets in comet Halley observed by Giotto and from the ground". Nature. 321 (6067): 357–361. Bibcode:1986Natur.321..357S. doi:10.1038/321357a0. ISSN 1476-4687. S2CID 123170893.
  3. [3]
    INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP TUNGUSKA 96 July 14-17, 1996
  4. [4]
    PERIODIC COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9 (1993e)


Flag of United StatesScientist icon

This United States astronomer article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Zdeněk_Sekanina, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.