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French astrophysicist André Brahic, Neptune rings discoverer, dies at 73

French astrophysicist André Brahic, one of the discoverers of Neptune's rings, died in Paris Sunday at the age of 73. An expert on the solar system, in 1984 he launched a programme which led to the discovery, with US astronomer William Hubbard, of the rings around the gaseous planet Neptune.

French astrophysicist André Brahic
French astrophysicist André Brahic AFP
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Brahic used the French national motto Liberté, Fraternité and Egalité to name three arcs belonging to Neptune's outermost ring.

A fourth ring was found by one of his colleagues later.

André Brahic, a life in dates
  • 30 November 1942: born in Paris:
  • 1960: Studies mathematics and astronomy at Paris VII University;
  • 1978: Starts teaching at Paris VII University, as well as working as an astrophysicist at the atomic and alternative energy centre, CEA;
  • 1984: With William Hubbard discovers the rings of Neptune;
  • 1990: an asteroid, number 3488, is named in his honour;
  • 2000: receives the Carl-Sagan 2000 prize in the United States;
  • 2006: wins Jean-Perrin 2006 prize for de popularising scientific knowledge:
  • 2014: candidate to become member of the Académie française but loses to Marc Lambron;
  • 2015: Given the Légion d'Honneur;
  • 15 May 2016: dies in Paris after a battle with cancer.

Born into a working-class family in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942, Brahic was initiated into astrophysics after the war by Evry Schatzman, considered the father of the discipline in France.

In the 1980s Brahic became a specialist in exploring our solar system with the help of the Nasa Voyager and later US-Europe Cassini unmanned missions, which continue to this day.

He was an astrophysicist at the Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA) and a professor at the University of Paris.

French President François Hollande described him as a great teacher "who knew how to make simple the mysteries of the sky", in a statement after the announcement of his death.

"He was a brilliant character... extraordinarily warm, profound and authentic, a great scholar and also a storyteller, a writer," Brahic's publisher and close friend Odile Jacob said.

She published his last book Worlds Elsewhere; Are We Alone last year.

Described as a dreamer, Brahic once said he was hoping to lauch a space probe by the year 2057, to see Neptune's rings in time for his 115th birthday.

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