1. David Rittenhouse (1732)

American Astronomer

Astronomer who focused on the planet Venus and taught astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also the first American to sight Uranus, which he did in 1784.

2. Maria Mitchell (1818)

American Astronomer

American astronomer who discovered a comet that became known as "Miss Mitchell's Comet" in 1847 by using a telescope. It won her a gold medal prize presented by King Frederick...

3. Percival Lowell (1855)

American Astronomer

Distinguished astronomer who studied the canals of Mars and published three books - Mars, Mars and Its Canals, and Mars As the Abode of Life - about his discoveries. He...

4. Harlow Shapley (1885)

American Astronomer

Award-winning astronomer remembered for correctly estimating the size of the Milky Way Galaxy. He also originated the concept of "habitable zones," which describes areas in space where liquid water can...

5. Edwin Hubble (1889)

American Astronomer

American astronomer who played a crucial role in establishing the field of extragalactic astronomy and for whom the space telescope was named. He was one of the first scientists to...

6. Grote Reber (1911)

American Astronomer

American pioneer of radio astronomy whose 1937 radio antenna was the second ever to be used for astronomical purposes. His work caused an explosion of radio astronomy i the post-World...

7. Jack Horkheimer (1938)

American Astronomer

Miami Space Transit Planetarium executive director who began hosting the astronomy show Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer in 1976.

8. Alexei Filippenko (1958)

American Astronomer

Astrophysicist who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011 for his discovery of the accelerating universe. He has served as a Professor of Astronomy at the University of California,...

9. Feryal Özel (1975)

American Astronomer

Özel is a Turkish astrophysicist born in Istanbul Turkey specializing in the physics of compact objects and high energy astrophysical phenomena having worked especially in the field of neutron stars...

10. Nancy Roman (1925)

American Astronomer

Nancy Grace Roman is an American astronomer. Throughout her career Roman has also been an active public speaker and educator and an advocate for women in the sciences.

11. Maria Zuber (1958)

American Astronomer

Maria T. Zuber is a member of the National Science Board and the Vice President for Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she also holds the position of...

12. Eugene Parker (1927)

American Astronomer

Eugene N. Parker is an American solar astrophysicist who received his B. S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and Ph. D. from Caltech in 1951. In...

13. Marc Postman (1958)

American Astronomer

Marc Postman is an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore Maryland. His research interestsinclude observational studies of the formation and evolution of galaxies clusters of galaxies and...

14. Carolyn S. Shoemaker (1929)

American Astronomer

Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker is an American astronomer and is a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9. She holds the record for most comets discovered by an individual.

15. John M. Grunsfeld (1958)

American Astronomer

John Mace Grunsfeld is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttleflights and has served as NASA Chief Scientist. His academic background...

16. Gerald Neugebauer (1932)

American Astronomer

Gerald Gerry Neugebauer is an American astronomer known for his pioneering work in infrared astronomy. Neugebauer was born in Göttingen Germany and is the son of Otto Neugebauer an Austrian-American...

17. James E. Gunn (1938)

American Astronomer

James Edward Gunn is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University. Gunn's early theoretical work in astronomy has helped establish the current understanding of how galaxies form and...

18. James B. Kaler (1938)

American Astronomer

James B. Kaler is an American astronomer and science writer. After elementary and high-school education in Albany Kaler earned his A. B. at the University of Michigan in 1960....

19. Carl E. Heiles (Unknow)

American Astronomer

Carl Eugene Heiles is an American astrophysicist noted for his contribution to the understanding of diffuse interstellar matter through observational radio astronomy.

20. Frank Shu (1943)

American Astronomer

Shu is an American astrophysicist astronomer and author. He is currently professor of astronomy at the University of California Berkeley and University of California San Diego and the university...

21. Jill Tarter (1944)

American Astronomer

Jill Cornell Tarter is an American astronomer and the outgoing director of the Center for SETI Research holding the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute.

22. Jeff Kanipe (1953)

American Astronomer

Jeff Kanipe is a science writer and author of astronomy books.

23. Sallie Baliunas (1953)

American Astronomer

Sallie Louise Baliunas is an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and formerly the Deputy Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory.

24. Linda A. Morabito (1953)

American Astronomer

Linda A. Morabito also known as Linda Kelly Linda Hyder and Linda Morabito-Meyer is the astronomer who made the discovery of volcanic activity on Io a moon of Jupiter on...

25. Alan Dressler (1948)

American Astronomer

Alan Michael Dressler is an American astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science of Washington D. C..

26. Maynard Pittendreigh (1954)

American Astronomer

The Rev. Dr. W. Maynard Pittendreigh is an astronomer writer and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. As a minister he has been a pioneer and leader in a...

27. R. Jay GaBany (1954)

American Astronomer

Robert Jay GaBany is an American amateur astronomer and astrophotographer who is also known for his work with an international team of astrophysicists led by Dr. David Martínez-Delgado.

28. Michael D. Reynolds (Unknow)

American Astronomer

Michael D. Reynolds is the Dean of Mathematics & Natural Sciences and Professor of Astronomy at Florida State College in Jacksonville Florida. Reynolds is perhaps best known for his astronomy...

29. Geoffrey Marcy (1954)

American Astronomer

Geoffrey W. Marcy is an American astronomer who is currently Professor of Astronomy at the University of California Berkeley famous for discovering more extrasolar planets than anyone else 70 out...

30. Russell Alan Hulse (1950)

American Astronomer

Russell Alan Hulse is an American physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics shared with his thesis advisor Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. for the discovery of a new...

31. Alan Boss (1951)

American Astronomer

Alan P. Boss is a United States astrophysicist and NASA scientist.

32. Larry W. Esposito (1951)

American Astronomer

Larry W. Esposito is an American planetary astronomer and a Professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics University of Colorado. A 1973 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of...

33. Deborah Byrd (1951)

American Astronomer

Deborah Byrd is an American science journalist. She is executive producer and cohost of the internationally syndicated Earth & Sky radio series. Byrd created and produced the astronomy radio show...

34. Mark M. Phillips (1951)

American Astronomer

Mark M. Phillips is an American internationally recognized astronomer in the observational studies of all classes of supernovae. He is well known for his work on SN1986G SN1987A the Calán/Tololo...

35. Martha P. Haynes (Unknow)

American Astronomer

Martha Patricia Haynes is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and extragalactic astronomy. In 1989 she won the Henry Draper Medal for her work with collaborator Riccardo Giovanelli...

36. Charles C. Steidel (1962)

American Astronomer

Charles C. Steidel is an American astronomer and Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Astronomy at California Institute of Technology. He graduated from Princeton University with an A. B. in Astrophysical...

37. Donald Machholz (1952)

American Astronomer

Donald Edward Machholz born October 7 1952 in Portsmouth Virginia is an American amateur astronomer from Colfax California.

38. Stacy McGaugh (1964)

American Astronomer

Stacy McGaugh is an American astronomer and professor in the Department of Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. His fields of specialty include low surface brightness galaxies...

39. Guy Consolmagno (1952)

American Astronomer

Brother Guy J. Consolmagno SJ is an American research astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory.

40. Peter McCullough (1964)

American Astronomer

Peter R. McCullough is an American astronomer founder of the XO Project and discoverer of extrasolar transiting planets such as XO-1b. Soon after the U. S. declassification of the laser...

41. David J. Tholen (1955)

American Astronomer

David James Tholen is an American astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii who specializes in planetary and solar system astronomy.

42. James F. Bell III (1965)

American Astronomer

James F. Bell III is a Professor of Astronomy at Arizona State University specializing in the study of planetary geology geochemistry and mineralogy using data obtained from telescopes and from...

43. Gerard van Belle (1968)

American Astronomer

Gerard Theodore van Belle is an American-Canadian astronomer. He received a bachelor's degree in physics from Whitman College in 1990 a master's in physics from The Johns Hopkins University in...

44. Shrinivas Kulkarni (1956)

American Astronomer

Shrinivas R. Kulkarni FRS is a professor of astrophysics and planetary science at California Institute of Technology. He is on the Space Interferometry Mission science team and is the director...

45. Charles L. Bennett (1956)

American Astronomer

Charles L. Bennett is an American observational astrophysicist and the Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy and a Gilman Scholar at Johns Hopkins University.

46. Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr. (1941)

American Astronomer

Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. is an American astrophysicist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his discovery with Russell Alan Hulse of a new type of pulsar a discovery...

47. Steve Squyres (1957)

American Astronomer

Steve W. Squyres is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca New York. His research area is in planetary sciences with a focus on large solid...

48. James L. Hilton (1957)

American Astronomer

James Lindsay Hilton has been an astronomer at the United States Naval Observatory since 1986. In 1999 he published a new set of ephemerides for 15 of the largest asteroids...

49. Erik Ian Asphaug (1961)

American Astronomer

Erik Ian Asphaug is a Norwegian American planetary science professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Asphaug received his bachelor's degree in mathematics and...

50. Lyman Page (1957)

American Astronomer

Lyman Alexander Page Jr. is the Henry DeWolf Smyth Professor of Physics at Princeton University. He is an expert in observational cosmology and one of the original co-investigators for...