Leif Erland Andersson
| Leif Erland Andersson | |
|---|---|
| 220px | |
| Born | 1944 |
| Died | 1979 |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Education | Ph.D. |
| Alma mater | Lund University, Indiana University Bloomington |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
| Spouse(s) | Gloria Ptacek |
Leif Erland Andersson (1944–1979), born in Falkenberg, Sweden, was a Swedish astronomer.[1]
Andersson had been a child prodigy who won the Swedish television quiz show 10.000-kronorsfrågan ("The 10,000 crown question") twice, the first time at age 16.[2]
From his late teen years, he was also a well-known science fiction fan in Sweden, who chaired the MalCon in 1966 in Malmö,Sweden[3] and took over editing the pioneering Swedish science fiction amateur journal, the Scandinavian Amateur Press Alliance (SAPA) after John-Henry Holmberg left the position some time after 1964.[4]
Andersson studied astronomy at Lund University,[5] but received a scholarship to San Michele Observatory in on the island of Anacapri in Sicily in 1968.[6]
He studied the work of Professor Åke Wallenquist,[7] at Uppsala University. Andersson later went to Indiana University Bloomington to complete his Ph.D. degree. While there, he married Gloria Ptacek in 1973 at the Beck Chapel of Indiana University.[citation needed]
Andersson was hired in a post-doctoral research associate position in the summer of 1973 by Dr. Gerard Kuiper[8] at the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory[9] of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Andersson calculated the first observable transits of Pluto and Charon[10] in the early 1980s, but did not live to see them.[11]
He mapped the far side of the moon in NASA's Catalogue of Lunar Nomenclature, with co-author Ewen Whitaker.[12]
After his death from lymphatic cancer at the age of 35 in 1979, the crater Andersson on the Moon was named after him.[13] He was survived by his wife.
In honor of Leif Andersson's work on the determination of Pluto's pole position, the Spacewatch Asteroid Project at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory named an asteroid in his honor in the Minor Planet Circular of 18 December 1995, p. 827:[14]
References
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