George Van Biesbroeck
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990 Yerkes | November 23, 1922 |
993 Moultona | January 12, 1923 |
1024 Hale | December 2, 1923 |
1027 Aesculapia | November 11, 1923 |
1033 Simona | September 4, 1924 |
1045 Michela | November 19, 1924 |
1046 Edwin | December 1, 1924 |
1079 Mimosa | January 14, 1927 |
1270 Datura | December 17, 1930 |
1312 Vassar | July 27, 1933 |
1464 Armisticia | November 11, 1939 |
2253 Espinette | July 30, 1932 |
2463 Sterpin | March 10, 1934 |
3211 Louispharailda | February 10, 1931 |
3378 Susanvictoria | November 25, 1922 |
3641 Williams Bay | November 24, 1922 |
George A. Van Biesbroeck (or Georges-Achille Van Biesbroeck) (January 21, 1880–February 23, 1974) was a Belgian-American astronomer.
He discovered the periodic comet 53P/Van Biesbroeck, as well as two non-periodic comets: C/1925 W1 (Van Biesbroeck 1) and C/1935 Q1 (Van Biesbroeck 2).
He also discovered a number of asteroids.
He was born in Ghent, Belgium and became a civil engineer. However, in 1904 he left this profession and joined the staff at the observatory at the Royal Observatory of Belgium at Uccle.
In 1915, as World War I was raging, he was invited to come to Yerkes Observatory and brought his family with him. He settled in the United States and worked on double stars, comets, asteroids, and variable stars. In 1945 he retired at the age of 65, but remained very active. In 1963 he came to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson under Gerard Kuiper.
Van Biesbroeck won the James Craig Watson Medal in 1957.
The asteroid 1781 Van Biesbroeck is named after him, as are Van Biesbroeck crater on the Moon and the red dwarf Van Briesboeck's Star (Wolf 1055 AB). The George Van Biesbroeck Prize, awarded by the American Astronomical Society, is named in his honor as well.