 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(January 2024) |
The following is a list of astronomers, astrophysicists and other notable people who have made contributions to the field of astronomy. They may have won major prizes or awards, developed or invented widely used techniques or technologies within astronomy, or are directors of major observatories or heads of space-based telescope projects.
| Name | Country | Born | Died | Notable for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marc Aaronson | United States | 1950 | 1987 | His work concentrated on three fields: the determination of the Hubble constant (H0) using the Tully–Fisher relation, the study of carbon rich stars, and the velocity distribution of those stars in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Aaronson was one of the first astronomers to attempt to image dark matter using infrared imaging. He imaged infrared halos of unknown matter around galaxies that could be dark matter. |
| George Ogden Abell | United States | 1927 | 1983 | |
| Hiroshi Abe | Japan | 1958 | ||
| Michaël Gillon | Belgium | 1974 | ||
| Antonio Abetti | Italy | 1847 | 1928 | |
| Giorgio Abetti | Italy | 1882 | 1982 | |
| Charles Greeley Abbot | United States | 1872 | 1973 | |
| Charles Hitchcock Adams | United States | 1868 | 1951 | |
| John Couch Adams | United Kingdom | 1819 | 1892 | His most famous achievement was predicting the existence and position of Neptune, using only mathematics. The calculations were made to explain discrepancies with Uranus's orbit and the laws of Kepler and Newton. |
| Walter Sydney Adams | United States | 1876 | 1956 | |
| Saul Adelman | United States | 1944 | ||
| Petrus Alphonsi | Spain | 1062 | 1110 | |
| Agrippa | Greece | fl. c. 92 | Agrippa observed the occultation of a part of the Pleiades by the southernmost part of the Moon. | |
| Paul Oswald Ahnert | Germany | 1897 | 1989 | |
| Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs | Germany | 1912 | 1954 | |
| George Biddell Airy | United Kingdom | 1801 | 1892 | |
| Robert Aitken | United States | 1864 | 1951 | |
| Makio Akiyama | Japan | 1950 | ||
| Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi | Persia | 903 | 986 | |
| Albategnius (see Al-Batani) | Syria | c. 858 | 929 | Al-Battānī's observations of the Sun led him to understand the nature of annular solar eclipses. He accurately calculated the Earth's obliquity (the angle between the planes of the equator and the ecliptic) |
| Vladimir Aleksandrovich Albitzky | Russia | 1891 | 1952 | |
| Albumasar | Persia | 787 | 886 | |
| George Alcock | United Kingdom | 1913 | 2000 | |
| Harold Alden | United States | 1890 | 1964 | |
| Hannes Alfvén | Sweden | 1908 | 1995 | |
| Lawrence H. Aller | United States | 1913 | 2003 | |
| Viktor Amazaspovich Ambartsumian | Armenia | 1912 | 1996 | One of the 20th century's top astronomers, he is widely regarded as the founder of theoretical astrophysics in the Soviet Union. |
| John August Anderson | United States | 1876 | 1959 | |
| Wilhelm Anderson | Estonia | 1880 | 1940 | |
| Marie Henri Andoyer | France | 1862 | 1929 | |
| Andronicus of Cyrrhus | Greece | fl. c. 100 BC | ||
| Anders Jonas Ångström | Sweden | 1814 | 1874 | |
| Eugène Michel Antoniadi | Greece/France | 1870 | 1944 | He made the first map of Mercury (although his maps were flawed due to incorrectly assumming that Mercury had synchronous rotation with the Sun) |
| Masakatsu Aoki | Japan | 1957 | ||
| Petrus Apianus | Germany | 1495 | 1557 | |
| François Arago | France | 1786 | 1853 | |
| Masaru Arai | Japan | 1952 | ||
| Hiroshi Araki | Japan | |||
| Sylvain Arend | Belgium | 1902 | 1992 | |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander | Germany | 1799 | 1875 | |
| Aristarchus of Samos | Greece | c. 310 BC | c. 230 BC | He presented the first known heliocentric model that placed the Sun at the center of the known universe, with the Earth revolving around the Sun once a year and rotating about its axis once a day. |
| Christoph Arnold | Germany | 1650 | 1695 | |
| Halton Christian Arp | United States | 1927 | 2013 | |
| Svante Arrhenius | Sweden | 1859 | 1927 | The first to use the principles of physical chemistry to estimate the extent to which increases in the atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for the Earth's increasing surface temperature. |
| Aryabhata | India | 476 | 550 | Aryabhata correctly insisted that the earth rotates about its axis daily, and that the apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the earth. Solar and lunar eclipses were scientifically explained by Aryabhata. Aryabhata calculated the sidereal rotation (the rotation of the earth referencing the fixed stars). |
| Arzachel | Spain | 1028 | 1087 | |
| Asada Goryu | Japan | 1734 | 1799 | |
| Atsuo Asami | Japan | |||
| Giuseppe Asclepi | Italy | 1706 | 1776 | |
| Joseph Ashbrook | United States | 1918 | 1980 | |
| Arthur Auwers | Germany | 1838 | 1915 | |
| Adrien Auzout | France | 1622 | 1691 | |
| David Axon | England | 1951 | 2012 | |
| Walter Baade | Germany | 1893 | 1960 | |
| Harold D. Babcock | United States | 1882 | 1968 | |
| Horace W. Babcock | United States | 1912 | 2003 | |
| Oskar Backlund | Sweden | 1846 | 1916 | |
| John N. Bahcall | United States | 1934 | 2005 | |
| Yoshiaki Banno | Japan | 1952 | 1991 | |
| Benjamin Baillaud | France | 1848 | 1934 | |
| Jules Baillaud | France | 1876 | 1960 | |
| Jean-Baptiste Baille | France | 1841 | 1918 | |
| Jean Sylvain Bailly | France | 1736 | 1793 | |
| Francis Baily | United Kingdom | 1774 | 1844 | |
| John Bainbridge | United Kingdom | 1582 | 1643 | |
| John E. Baldwin | United Kingdom | 1931 | 2010 | |
| Sallie Baliunas | United States | 1953 | ||
| Zoltán Balog | Hungary/United States | 1972 | ||
| Benjamin Banneker | United States | 1731 | 1806 | |
| Pietro Baracchi | Italy/Australia | 1851 | 1926 | |
| Beatriz Barbuy | Brazil | 1950 | ||
| Edward Emerson Barnard | United States | 1857 | 1923 | He is best known for his discovery of the high proper motion of Barnard's Star in 1916, which is named in his honor |
| Al Battani | Iraq | 850 | 929 | |
| Stefi Baum | United States | 1958 | ||
| Julius Bauschinger | Germany | 1860 | 1934 | |
| Johann Bayer | Germany | 1572 | 1625 | |
| Antonín Bečvář | Czechoslovakia | 1901 | 1965 | |
| Wilhelm Beer | Germany | 1797 | 1850 | Together with Johann Heinrich Mädler he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars |
| Sergei Ivanovich Belyavsky | Russia | 1883 | 1953 | |
| Charles L. Bennett | United States | 1956 | ||
| Bhaskara I | India | 600 | 680 | |
| Bhaskara II | India | 1114 | 1185 | |
| Jocelyn Bell Burnell | United Kingdom | 1943 | Discovered the first radio pulsars, highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, in 1967 | |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel | Germany | 1784 | 1846 | The first to successfully calculate the distance to a star other than the sun |
| Somnath Bharadwaj | India | 1964 | ||
| Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela | Austria | 1782 | 1856 | |
| Ludwig Biermann | Germany | 1907 | 1986 | discovering the Biermann battery, a process by which a weak seed magnetic field can be generated from zero initial conditions. He predicted the existence of the solar wind which in 1947 he dubbed "solar corpuscular radiation" |
| Wolf Bickel | Germany | 1942 | ||
| Guillaume Bigourdan | France | 1851 | 1932 | |
| James Binney | United Kingdom | 1950 | ||
| Al-Biruni | Khwarezm/Persia | 973 | 1048 | |
| Gennady S. Bisnovatyi-Kogan | Russia | 1941 | ||
| Adriaan Blaauw | Netherlands | 1914 | 2010 | |
| Nathaniel Bliss | United Kingdom | 1700 | 1764 | |
| Johann Elert Bode | Germany | 1747 | 1826 | |
| Alfred Bohrmann | Germany | 1904 | 2000 | |
| Bart Bok | Netherlands | 1906 | 1983 | the discovery of Bok globules, which are small, densely dark clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen silhouetted against brighter backgrounds. |
| Charles Thomas Bolton | United States/Canada | 1943 | 2021 | was one of the first to present strong evidence of the existence of a stellar-mass black hole |
| John Gatenby Bolton | United Kingdom/Australia | 1922 | 1993 | |
| William Cranch Bond | United States | 1789 | 1859 | |
| Thomas Bopp | United States | 1949 | 2018 | |
| Alphonse Borrelly | France | 1842 | 1926 | |
| Rudjer Boscovich | Croatia | 1711 | 1787 | |
| Lewis Boss | United States | 1846 | 1912 | |
| Alexis Bouvard | France | 1767 | 1843 | |
| Rychard Bouwens | United States | 1972 | ||
| Edward L. G. Bowell | United States | 1943 | ||
| Ira Sprague Bowen | United States | 1898 | 1973 | |
| Louis Boyer | France | 1901 | 1999 | |
| Brian J. Boyle | United Kingdom/Australia | 1960 | ||
| Ronald N. Bracewell | Australia/United States | 1921 | 2007 | |
| James Bradley | United Kingdom | 1693 | 1762 | He is best known for two fundamental discoveries in astronomy, the aberration of light (1725–1728), and the nutation of the Earth's axis (1728–1748). |
| William A. Bradfield | New Zealand/Australia | 1927 | 2014 | |
| Tycho Brahe | Denmark | 1546 | 1601 | Tycho Brahe was the first to discover a super nova, which he falsely believed was a newly created star (in reality a dying star), which was one of the major reasons to abandon the view that the universe was static and eternal. |
| Brahmagupta | India | 598 | 668 CE | |
| John Alfred Brashear | United States | 1840 | 1920 | |
| William Robert Brooks | United States | 1844 | 1922 | |
| Theodor Brorsen | Denmark | 1819 | 1895 | He is best known for his discovery of five comets, including the lost periodic comet, 5D/Brorsen |
| Dirk Brouwer | Netherlands/United States | 1902 | 1966 | |
| Ernest William Brown | United Kingdom | 1866 | 1938 | |
| Michael (Mike) E. Brown | United States | 1965 | Co-discoverer of multiple dwarf planets beyond Pluto, including Quaoar in 2002, Makemake in 2005 and Eris in 2006. This triggered a debate on the definition of a planet. | |
| Hermann Alexander Brück | Germany | 1905 | 2000 | |
| Paul Brück | France | 1856 | 1922 | |
| Ismael Bullialdus | France | 1605 | 1694 | |
| Margaret Burbidge | United Kingdom/United States | 1919 | 2020 | |
| Miriam Burland | Canada | 1902 | 1996 | |
| Robert Burnham Jr. | United States | 1931 | 1993 | |
| Sherburne Wesley Burnham | United States | 1838 | 1921 | |
| Schelte J. Bus | United States | 1956 | ||
| Bimla Buti | India | 1933 | ||
| Alastair G. W. Cameron | Canada | 1925 | 2005 | He was one of the founders of the field of nuclear astrophysics, advanced the theory that the Moon was created by the giant impact of a Mars-sized object with the early Earth, and was an early adopter of computer technology in astrophysics. |
| William Wallace Campbell | United States | 1862 | 1938 | |
| Annie Jump Cannon | United States | 1863 | 1941 | |
| Luigi Carnera | Italy | 1875 | 1962 | |
| Edwin Francis Carpenter | United States | 1898 | 1963 | |
| James Carpenter | United Kingdom | 1840 | 1899 | |
| Richard Christopher Carrington | United Kingdom | 1826 | 1875 | |
| Sir John Carroll | United Kingdom | 1899 | 1974 | |
| César-François Cassini de Thury | France | 1714 | 1784 | |
| Dominique, comte de Cassini | France | 1748 | 1845 | |
| Giovanni Domenico Cassini | France | 1625 | 1712 | |
| Jacques Cassini | France | 1677 | 1756 | |
| Corsono Carsono | Spain | fl. c. 14th century | ||
| Bonaventura Cavalieri | Italy | 1598 | 1647 | |
| Anders Celsius | Sweden | 1701 | 1744 | |
| Vincenzo Cerulli | Italy | 1859 | 1927 | |
| Jean Chacornac | France | 1823 | 1873 | |
| Merieme Chadid | France | 1969 | ||
| James Challis | United Kingdom | 1803 | 1882 | |
| Radha Gobinda Chandra | Bangladesh/India | 1878 | 1975 | |
| Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar | India/United States | 1910 | 1995 | He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "...theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars". |
| Carl Charlier | Sweden | 1862 | 1934 | |
| Auguste Charlois | France | 1864 | 1910 | |
| Lyudmila Ivanovna Chernykh | Russia/Ukraine | 1935 | 2017 | |
| Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh | Russia/Ukraine | 1931 | 2004 | |
| James Christy | United States | 1938 | Discovered the largest of Pluto's moons, Charon | |
| Edwin Foster Coddington | United States | 1870 | 1950 | |
| Jérôme Eugène Coggia | France | 1849 | 1919 | |
| Josep Comas i Solà | Spain | 1868 | 1937 | |
| Andrew Ainslie Common | United Kingdom | 1841 | 1903 | |
| Guy Consolmagno | United States | 1952 | ||
| Nicolaus Copernicus | Prussia/Poland | 1473 | 1543 | Copernicus discovered the heliocentric model of the solar system. |
| Janine Connes | France | 1934 | ||
| Pablo Cottenot | France | 1800 | ? | |
| Heather Couper | United Kingdom | 1949 | 2020 | In 1984, she was elected President of the British Astronomical Association, the first woman and the second-youngest person to hold the position. |
| Leopold Courvoisier | Switzerland | 1873 | 1955 | |
| Arthur Edwin Covington | Canada | 1914 | 2001 | |
| Philip Herbert Cowell | United Kingdom | 1870 | 1949 | |
| Thomas George Cowling | United Kingdom | 1906 | 1990 | |
| Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin | United Kingdom | 1865 | 1939 | |
| Luíz Cruls | Brazil | 1848 | 1908 | |
| James Cuffey | United States | 1911 | 1999 | |
| Heber Doust Curtis | United States | 1872 | 1942 | |
| Johann Baptist Cysat | Switzerland | 1587 | 1657 | |
| Alexander Dalgarno | United States | 1928 | 2015 | |
| Jacques Eugène d'Allonville | France | 1671 | 1732 | |
| Andre Louis Danjon | France | 1890 | 1967 | |
| Heinrich d'Arrest | Germany | 1822 | 1875 | |
| George Howard Darwin | United Kingdom | 1845 | 1912 | |
| Roger Davies | United Kingdom | 1954 | ||
| Leonardo da Vinci | Italy | 1452 | 1519 | |
| William Rutter Dawes | United Kingdom | 1799 | 1868 | |
| Bernhard Dawson | Argentina | 1890 | 1960 | |
| Leo de Ball | Germany/Austria | 1853 | 1916 | |
| Duília de Mello | Brazil | 1963 | Duília de Mello was responsible for the discovery of the supernova SN 1997D. She also contributed to the discovery of blue blobs, known as 'star orphanages' due to their role in forming stars outside of galaxies. And in 2013, the scientist was involved in the discovery of the largest spiral galaxy in the universe, the Condor Galaxy NGC 6872. | |
| Henri Debehogne | Belgium | 1928 | 2007 | |
| Annibale de Gasparis | Italy | 1819 | 1892 | |
| Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre | France | 1749 | 1822 | |
| Charles-Eugène Delaunay | France | 1816 | 1872 | |
| Eugène Joseph Delporte | Belgium | 1882 | 1955 | |
| Audrey C. Delsanti | France | 1976 | ||
| William Frederick Denning | United Kingdom | 1848 | 1931 | |
| Alíz Derekas | Hungary | 1977 | ||
| Henri-Alexandre Deslandres | France | 1853 | 1948 | |
| Alexander Nikolaevich Deutsch | Russia | 1900 | 1986 | |
| Gérard de Vaucouleurs | France/United States | 1918 | 1995 | |
| Robert Dicke | United States | 1916 | 1997 | |
| Terence Dickinson | Canada | 1943 | ||
| Thomas Digges | United Kingdom | 1546 | 1595 | |
| Herbert Dingle | United States | 1890 | 1978 | |
| Andrea Di Paola | Italy | 1970 | ||
| Ewine van Dishoeck | Netherlands | 1955 | ||
| Helen Dodson Prince | United States | 1905 | 2002 | |
| Giovanni Battista Donati | Italy | 1826 | 1873 | |
| Frank Drake | United States | 1930 | ||
| Henry Draper | United States | 1837 | 1882 | |
| John Dreyer | Ireland | 1852 | 1926 | |
| Yuriy Drohobych | Ukraine | 1450 | 1494 | |
| Alexander D. Dubyago | Russia | 1903 | 1959 | |
| Dmitrij I. Dubyago | Russia | 1850 | 1918 | |
| Jean C. B. Dufay | France | 1896 | 1967 | |
| Raymond Smith Dugan | United States | 1878 | 1940 | |
| James Dunlop | Scotland | 1793 | 1848 | |
| Petar Đurković | Serbia | 1908 | 1981 | |
| Frank Watson Dyson | United Kingdom | 1868 | 1939 | |
| Arthur Eddington | United Kingdom | 1882 | 1944 | Around 1920, he foreshadowed the discovery and mechanism of nuclear fusion processes in stars. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars is named in his honour. |
| Frank K. Edmondson | United States | 1912 | 2008 | |
| Olin J. Eggen | United States | 1919 | 1998 | |
| David J. Eicher | United States | 1961 | ||
| Albert Einstein | Germany | 1879 | 1955 | |
| Eise Eisinga | Netherlands | 1744 | 1828 | |
| Eric Walter Elst | Belgium | 1936 | 2022 | |
| Johann Franz Encke | Germany | 1791 | 1865 | |
| Kin Endate | Japan | 1960 | ||
| Eratosthenes | Alexandria | 276 BC | 194 BC | |
| Emil Ernst | Germany | 1889 | 1942 | |
| Ernest Esclangon | France | 1876 | 1954 | |
| Fred Espenak | United States | 1953 | ||
| Larry W. Esposito | United States | 1951 | ||
| Eudoxus of Cnidus | Ancient Greece | c. 408 BC | c. 355 BC | |
| Robert Evans | Australia | 1937 | 2022 | |
| Sandra M. Faber | United States | 1945 | ||
| David Fabricius | Netherlands | 1564 | 1617 | |
| Johannes Fabricius | Netherlands | 1587 | 1615 | |
| Fearon Fallows | United Kingdom | 1789 | 1831 | |
| Farghani | Persia | 800 | 870 | |
| Hervé Faye | France | 1814 | 1902 | |
| Charles Fehrenbach | France | 1914 | 2008 | |
| Gyula Fényi | Hungary | 1845 | 1927 | |
| James Ferguson | United States | 1797 | 1867 | |
| Gary Ferland | United States | 1951 | ||
| Alex Filippenko | United States | 1958 | ||
| Erwin Finlay-Freundlich | Germany | 1885 | 1964 | |
| Axel Firsoff | United Kingdom | 1910 | 1981 | |
| Debra Fischer | United States | 1951 | ||
| J. Richard Fisher | United States | 1943 | ||
| Camille Flammarion | France | 1842 | 1925 | |
| Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion | France | 1867 | 1962 | |
| John Flamsteed | United Kingdom | 1646 | 1719 | |
| Honoré Flaugergues | France | 1755 | 1835 | |
| Williamina Fleming | United States | 1857 | 1911 | |
| Wilhelm Julius Foerster | Germany | 1832 | 1921 | |
| Alfred Fowler | United Kingdom | 1868 | 1940 | |
| William Alfred Fowler | United States | 1911 | 1995 | He is known for his theoretical and experimental research into nuclear reactions within stars and the energy elements produced in the process. Winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. |
| Philip Fox | United States | 1878 | 1944 | |
| Andrew Fraknoi | United States | 1948 | ||
| Joseph von Fraunhofer | Germany | 1787 | 1826 | Designed the Heliometer used to successfully calculate the distance to a star, other than the sun, for the first time. |
| Herbert Friedman | United States | 1916 | 2000 | |
| Dirk D. Frimout | Belgium | 1941 | ||
| Edwin Brant Frost | United States | 1866 | 1935 | |
| Shigehisa Fujikawa | Japan | |||
| Naoshi Fukushima | Japan | 1925 | 2003 | |
| Kiichirō Furukawa | Japan | 1929 | 2016 | |
| Toshimasa Furuta | Japan | |||
| Bryan Gaensler | Australia | 1973 | ||
| Galileo Galilei | Italy | 1564 | 1642 | |
| Gan De | China | fl. 4th century BC | Gan De, together with Shi Shen compiled China's first star catalogue | |
| Gordon J. Garradd | Australia | 1959 | ||
| Julio Garavito Armero | Colombia | 1865 | 1920 | |
| Ben Gascoigne | New Zealand/Australia | 1915 | 2010 | |
| Gautama Siddha | China | fl. 8th century AD | ||
| Margaret Geller | United States | 1947 | ||
| Johann Gottfried Galle | Germany | 1812 | 1910 | was the first person to view the planet Neptune and know what he was looking at. |
| George Gamow | Russia/United States | 1904 | 1968 | |
| Carl Friedrich Gauss | Germany | 1777 | 1855 | |
| Tom Gehrels | United States | 1925 | 2011 | |
| Neil Gehrels | United States | 1952 | 2017 | Gamma-ray astronomy; led Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory; led Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope |
| Robert Gendler | United States | 1957 | ||
| Andrea M. Ghez | United States | 1965 | ||
| Aurélien Barrau | France | 1973 | ||
| Riccardo Giacconi | Italy | 1931 | 2018 | |
| Michel Giacobini | France | 1873 | 1938 | |
| Henry L. Giclas | United States | 1910 | 2007 | |
| David Gill | United Kingdom | 1843 | 1914 | |
| Ian Glass | Ireland/South Africa | 1939 | ||
| Karl Glazebrook | United Kingdom | 1965 | Determined that the average color of the vast universe is Cosmic Latte | |
| Marcelo Gleiser | Brazil | 1959 | ||
| Thomas Gold | United States | 1920 | 2004 | |
| Leo Goldberg | United States | 1913 | 1987 | |
| Peter Goldreich | United States | 1939 | ||
| Hermann Goldschmidt | Germany | 1802 | 1866 | In 1820, Goldschmidt discovered shadow bands in total solar eclipses |
| François Gonnessiat | France | 1856 | 1934 | |
| John Goodricke | United Kingdom | 1764 | 1786 | |
| Alyssa A. Goodman | United States | 1962 | ||
| Abu Sa'id Gorgani | Persia | 9th century | ||
| Paul Götz | Germany | 1883 | 1962 | |
| Benjamin Apthorp Gould | United States | 1824 | 1896 | |
| Andrew Graham | Ireland | 1815 | 1907 | |
| Charles Green | England | 1735 | 1771 | |
| Jesse Greenstein | United States | 1909 | 2002 | |
| John Grunsfeld | United States | 1956 | ||
| Edward Guinan | United States | 1922 | ||
| Jay U. Gunter | United States | 1911 | 1994 | |
| Alexander A. Gurshtein | Russia | 1937 | 2020 | |
| Bengt Gustafsson | Sweden | 1943 | ||
| Guo Shoujing | China | 1231 | 1316 | |
| Alan Harvey Guth | United States | 1947 | ||
| Yusuke Hagihara | Japan | 1897 | 1979 | |
| Alan Hale | United States | 1958 | ||
| George Ellery Hale | United States | 1868 | 1938 | |
| Asaph Hall | United States | 1829 | 1907 | |
| Edmond Halley | England | 1656 | 1742 | |
| Erika Hamden | United States | ? | ||
| Heidi Hammel | United States | 1960 | ||
| Mario Hamuy | Chile | 1960 | ||
| Peter Andreas Hansen | Denmark | 1795 | 1874 | |
| Abulfazl Harawi | Persia | 10th century | ||
| Karl Ludwig Harding | Germany | 1765 | 1834 | Was a part of the so-called 'celestial police' group, which made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. |
| Thomas Hariot | United Kingdom | 1560 | 1621 | |
| Guillermo Haro | Mexico | 1913 | 1988 | |
| Robert George Harrington | United States | 1904 | 1987 | |
| Robert Sutton Harrington | United States | 1942 | 1993 | |
| Edward Robert Harrison | United Kingdom/United States | 1917 | 2007 | |
| William Kenneth Hartmann | United States | 1939 | ||
| John Hartnup Jr. | United Kingdom | 1841 | 1892 | |
| Lisa Harvey-Smith | Australia | 1979 | ||
| Takeo Hatanaka | Japan | 1914 | 1963 | |
| Stephen Hawking | United Kingdom | 1942 | 2018 | |
| Will Hay | United Kingdom | 1888 | 1949 | |
| Chushiro Hayashi | Japan | 1920 | 2010 | |
| Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann | Germany | 1901 | 1983 | |
| E. Ruth Hedeman | United States | 1910 | 2006 | |
| Carl Heiles | United States | 1939 | ||
| Joseph Helffrich | Germany | 1872 | 1971 | |
| Eleanor Helin | United States | 1932 | 2009 | |
| Maximilian Hell | Austria-Hungary | 1720 | 1792 | |
| Karl Ludwig Hencke | Germany | 1793 | 1866 | |
| Thomas Henderson | Scotland | 1798 | 1844 | |
| Paul Henry | France | 1848 | 1905 | |
| Prosper Henry | France | 1849 | 1903 | |
| Abraham bar Hiyya | Spanish Jewish | 1070 | 1136 | |
| George Howard Herbig | United States | 1920 | 2013 | |
| Carl W. Hergenrother | United States | 1973 | ||
| Caroline Herschel | United Kingdom | 1750 | 1848 | |
| John Herschel | United Kingdom | 1792 | 1871 | |
| William Herschel | United Kingdom/Germany | 1738 | 1822 | Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. |
| Ejnar Hertzsprung | Denmark | 1873 | 1967 | He developed a classification system for stars to divide them by spectral type, stage in their development, and luminosity, the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. |
| Johannes Hevelius | Poland | 1611 | 1687 | |
| Antony Hewish | United Kingdom | 1924 | 2021 | won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars. |
| George William Hill | United States | 1838 | 1914 | |
| John Russell Hind | United Kingdom | 1823 | 1895 | |
| Hipparchus | Nicaea | c. 190 BC | 120 BC | Hipparchus is considered the greatest ancient astronomical observer and, by some, the greatest overall astronomer of antiquity. He was the first whose quantitative and accurate models for the motion of the Sun and Moon survive. |
| Masanori Hirasawa | Japan | |||
| Kiyotsugu Hirayama | Japan | 1874 | 1943 | |
| Shin Hirayama | Japan | 1868 | 1945 | |
| Gustave-Adolphe Hirn | France | 1815 | 1890 | |
| Sebastian von Hoerner | Germany | 1919 | 2003 | |
| Cuno Hoffmeister | Germany | 1892 | 1968 | |
| Dorrit Hoffleit | United States | 1907 | 2007 | |
| Helen Sawyer Hogg | Canada | 1905 | 1993 | |
| Moses Holden | United Kingdom | 1777 | 1864 | |
| Paulo R. Holvorcem | Brazil | 1967 | ||
| Minoru Honda | Japan | 1917 | 1990 | |
| Kamil Hornoch | Czech Republic | 1972 | ||
| Jeremiah Horrocks | United Kingdom | c. 1619 | 1641 | First person to demonstrate the Moon's elliptical orbit around the Earth. He predicted, observed and recorded the 1639 transit of Venus. |
| Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld | Netherlands | 1921 | 2015 | |
| Herbert Alonzo Howe | United States | 1858 | 1926 | |
| Steve B. Howell | United States | 1955 | Howell was fundamental in the development of CCD astronomy especially CCD photometry of faint sources. He was the Project Scientist for the NASA Kepler and K2 Exoplanet missions. | |
| Fred Hoyle | United Kingdom | 1915 | 2001 | |
| Edwin Powell Hubble | United States | 1889 | 1953 | Hubble proved that many objects previously thought to be clouds of dust and gas and classified as "nebulae" were actually galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He provided evidence for Hubble–Lemaître law, the fact that the universe is ever expanding. |
| William Huggins | United Kingdom | 1824 | 1910 | |
| Russell Alan Hulse | United States | 1950 | ||
| Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst | Netherlands | 1918 | 2000 | |
| Milton Lasell Humason | United States | 1891 | 1972 | |
| Thomas John Hussey | England | 1792 | 1854 | |
| Christiaan Huygens | Netherlands | 1629 | 1695 | Discovered the largest moon of Saturn, Titan |
| Yuji Hyakutake | Japan | 1950 | 2002 | |
| Josef Allen Hynek | United States | 1910 | 1986 | |
| Hypatia | Egypt | c. 350–370 | 415 | |
| Christopher Hansteen | Norway | 1784 | 1873 | |
| Icko Iben Jr. | United States | 1931 | ||
| Kaoru Ikeya | Japan | 1943 | ||
| Chris Impey | United Kingdom/United States | 1956 | ||
| Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes | Scotland/South Africa | 1861 | 1933 | |
| Shigeru Inoda | Japan | 1955 | 2008 | |
| Jamal Nazrul Islam | Bangladesh | 1939 | 2013 | |
| Edward Israel | United States | 1859 | 1884 | |
| Iwahashi Zenbei | Japan | 1756 | 1811 | |
| Masayuki Iwamoto | Japan | 1954 | ||
| Shun-ei Izumikawa | Japan | |||
| Cyril V. Jackson | South Africa | 1903 | 1988 | |
| Karan Jani | India | 1988 | ||
| Pierre Jules César Janssen | France | 1824 | 1907 | |
| James Jeans | United Kingdom | 1877 | 1946 | |
| Benjamin Jekhowsky | Russia/France/Algeria | 1881 | 1975 | |
| Louise Freeland Jenkins | United States | 1888 | 1970 | |
| David C. Jewitt | United Kingdom | 1958 | ||
| Jiao Bingzhen | China | 1689 | 1726 | |
| John A. Johnson | United States | 1977 | ||
| Alfred Harrison Joy | United States | 1882 | 1973 | |
| Vinod Johri | India | 1935 | 2014 | |
| Tetsuo Kagawa | Japan | 1969 | ||
| Norio Kaifu | Japan | 1943 | 2019 | Norio directed the construction of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory and the Subaru Telescope. He was also the director of the International Astronomical Union(IAU) from 2012 to 2015. [1] |
| Franz Kaiser | Germany | 1891 | 1962 | |
| Piet van de Kamp | Netherlands/United States | 1901 | 1995 | |
| Kiyotaka Kanai | Japan | 1951 | ||
| Hiroshi Kaneda | Japan | 1953 | ||
| Henry Kandrup | United States | 1955 | 2003 | |
| Jacobus Kapteyn | Netherlands | 1851 | 1922 | |
| Lyudmila Karachkina | Ukraine | 1948 | ||
| Ghiyath al-Kashi | Persia | 1380 | 1429 | |
| Jeffrey Owen Katz | United States | 1960 | ||
| Karlis Kaufmanis | Latvia/United States | 1910 | 2003 | |
| Kōyō Kawanishi | Japan | 1959 | ||
| Nobuhiro Kawasato | Japan | |||
| James Edward Keeler | United States | 1857 | 1900 | |
| Paul Kempf | Germany | 1856 | 1920 | |
| Johannes Kepler | Germany | 1571 | 1630 | |
| Omar Khayyám | Persia | 1048 | 1131 | |
| Al-Khujandi | Persia | c. 940 | 1000 | discovered that the axial tilt of the earth is not constant |
| Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī | Persia | 780 | 850 | |
| Kidinnu | Babylon | fl. 4th century BC | c. 330 BC | |
| Hisashi Kimura | Japan | 1870 | 1943 | |
| Maria Margarethe Kirch | Germany | 1670 | 1720 | |
| Daniel Kirkwood | United States | 1814 | 1895 | |
| Robert Kirshner | United States | 1949 | ||
| Minoru Kizawa | Japan | 1947 | ||
| Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues | Germany | 1827 | 1884 | |
| Viktor Knorre | Russia | 1840 | 1919 | |
| Takao Kobayashi | Japan | 1961 | ||
| Toru Kobayashi | Japan | |||
| Luboš Kohoutek | Czechoslovakia | 1935 | ||
| Masahiro Koishikawa | Japan | 1952 | 2020 | |
| Nobuhisa Kojima | Japan | 1933 | ||
| Takuo Kojima | Japan | 1955 | ||
| Yoji Kondo | Japan | 1933 | 2017 | |
| Zdeněk Kopal | Czechoslovakia/United Kingdom/United States | 1914 | 1993 | |
| Sergei Kopeikin | United States | 1956 | ||
| August Kopff | Germany | 1882 | 1960 | |
| Korado Korlević | Croatia | 1958 | ||
| Hiroki Kosai | Japan | 1933 | ||
| Charles T. Kowal | United States | 1940 | 2011 | |
| Robert Kraft | United States | 1927 | 2015 | |
| Ľubor Kresák | Czechoslovakia | 1927 | 1994 | |
| Heinrich Kreutz | Germany | 1854 | 1927 | |
| Edwin C. Krupp | United States | 1944 | ||
| Kazuo Kubokawa | Japan | 1903 | 1943 | |
| Marc Kuchner | United States | 1972 | ||
| Gerard Kuiper | Netherlands/United States | 1905 | 1973 | The namesake of the Kuiper belt, a region of minor planets beyond Neptune. |
| György Kulin | Austria-Hungary | 1905 | 1989 | |
| Donald Kurtz | United States | 1948 | ||
| Ali Kuşçu | Turkey | 1403 | 1474 | |
| Reiki Kushida | Japan | |||
| Yoshio Kushida | Japan | 1957 | ||
| Nicolas Louis de Lacaille | France | 1713 | 1762 | |
| Elizabeth Lada | United States | |||
| Lagadha | India | 1st millennium BCE | ||
| Claes-Ingvar Lagerkvist | Sweden | 1944 | ||
| Joseph-Louis Lagrange | France | 1736 | 1813 | |
| Emily Lakdawalla | United States | 1975 | ||
| Jérôme Lalande | France | 1732 | 1807 | Calculated the distance from the moon to Earth |
| Johann Heinrich Lambert | France/Germany | 1728 | 1777 | |
| David J. Lane | Canada | 1963 | ||
| Andrew E. Lange | United States | 1957 | 2010 | |
| Samuel Pierpont Langley | United States | 1834 | 1906 | |
| Pierre-Simon Laplace | France | 1749 | 1827 | |
| Jacques Laskar | France | 1955 | ||
| William Lassell | United Kingdom | 1799 | 1880 | |
| Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent | France | 1900 | ||
| Henrietta Swan Leavitt | United States | 1868 | 1921 | Discovered that Cepheid variable stars pulsated at a rate relative to the luminosity. This discovery made it possible to determine the distance to other galaxies by comparing the distance to Cepheids in our galaxy measured by Parallax and Spectroscopy and then applying the results to cepheids in other galaxies. This would eventually lead to the discovery that the Universe is expanding. |
| Typhoon Lee | United States/Taiwan | 1948 | ||
| Guillaume Le Gentil | France | 1725 | 1792 | |
| Georges Lemaître | Belgium | 1894 | 1966 | Being the first the theorize that the Universe is ever expanding. The namesake of the Hubble–Lemaître law |
| Pierre Lemonnier | France | 1715 | 1799 | |
| Frederick C. Leonard | United States | 1896 | 1960 | |
| Armin Leuschner | United States | 1868 | 1953 | |
| Geraint Lewis | Australia | 1969 | ||
| Urbain Le Verrier | France | 1811 | 1877 | Theorized the existence of Neptune by calculations of its influence of orbit of Uranus, which let to Neptune's discovery. |
| Li Fan | China | 202 AD | 220 AD | |
| Bertil Lindblad | Sweden | 1895 | 1965 | |
| Adolph Friedrich Lindemann | Germany/United Kingdom | 1846 | 1927 | |
| Chris Lintott | United Kingdom | 1980 | ||
| Joseph Johann Littrow | Austria | 1781 | 1840 | |
| Karl L. Littrow | Austria | 1811 | 1877 | |
| Liu Xin | China | 50 BCE | 23 BCE | |
| Joseph Lockyer | United Kingdom | 1836 | 1920 | |
| Maurice Loewy | Austria/France | 1833 | 1907 | |
| Christian Sørensen Longomontanus | Denmark | 1562 | 1647 | |
| Bernard Lovell | United Kingdom | 1913 | 2012 | |
| Percival Lowell | United States | 1855 | 1916 | Theorized the existence of a ninth planet beyond Neptune, and contributed to the calculations that would eventually lead to the discovery of Pluto |
| Rosaly Lopes | Brazil | 1957 | ||
| Ángel López | Spain | 1955 | ||
| Álvaro López-García | Spain | 1941 | 2019 | |
| John William Lubbock | United Kingdom | 1803 | 1865 | |
| Knut Lundmark | Sweden | 1889 | 1958 | |
| Lupitus of Barcelona | Spain | fl. 10th century | ||
| Robert Luther | Germany | 1822 | 1900 | |
| Jane Luu | South Vietnam/United States | 1963 | ||
| Willem Luyten | Dutch East Indies (Netherlands) | 1899 | 1994 | |
| Donald Lynden-Bell | United Kingdom | 1935 | 2018 | |
| Andrew Lyne | United Kingdom | 1942 | ||
| Bernard Lyot | France | 1897 | 1952 | |
| Mahendra Suri | India | c. 1340 | 1400 | |
| Ma Yize | China | 910 | 1005 | |
| Adriaan van Maanen | United States | 1884 | 1946 | |
| George Parker 2nd Earl of Macclesfield | United Kingdom | c. 1697 | 1764 | |
| Amy Mainzer | United States | 1974 | ||
| Steve Mandel | United States | |||
| Geoff Marcy | United States | 1954 | ||
| Simon Marius | Germany | 1573 | 1624 | |
| Brian G. Marsden | United States | 1937 | 2010 | |
| Albert Marth | Germany | 1828 | 1897 | |
| Nevil Maskelyne | United Kingdom | 1732 | 1811 | |
| Charles Mason | United Kingdom/United States | 1730 | 1787 | |
| John C. Mather | United States | 1946 | ||
| Janet Akyüz Mattei | Turkey/United States | 1943 | 2004 | |
| Edward Walter Maunder | United Kingdom | 1851 | 1928 | |
| Pierre Louis Maupertuis | France | 1698 | 1759 | |
| Alain Maury | France | 1958 | ||
| Matthew Fontaine Maury | United States | 1806 | 1873 | |
| Brian May | United Kingdom | 1947 | ||
| Cornell Mayer | United States | 1922 | 2005 | |
| Tobias Mayer | Germany | 1723 | 1762 | |
| Michel Mayor | Switzerland | 1942 | ||
| Christopher McKee | United States | 1942 | ||
| Robert S. McMillan | United States | |||
| William H. McCrea | United Kingdom | 1904 | 1999 | |
| Bruce A. McIntosh | Canada | 1929 | 2015 | |
| Robert H. McNaught | Australia | 1956 | ||
| Pierre Méchain | France | 1744 | 1804 | |
| Thebe Medupe | South Africa | 1973 | ||
| Karen Jean Meech | United States | 1959 | ||
| Aden Baker Meinel | United States | 1922 | 2011 | |
| Fulvio Melia | United States | 1956 | ||
| Philibert Jacques Melotte | United Kingdom | 1880 | 1961 | |
| Paul Willard Merrill | United States | 1887 | 1961 | |
| David Merritt | United States | 1955 | ||
| Charles Messier | France | 1730 | 1817 | |
| Joel Hastings Metcalf | United States | 1866 | 1925 | |
| Andreas Gerasimos Michalitsianos | United States | 1947 | 1997 | |
| John Michell | United Kingdom | 1724 | 1793 | The first person known to have proposed the existence of black holes |
| Elia Millosevich | Italy | 1848 | 1919 | |
| Edward Arthur Milne | United Kingdom | 1896 | 1950 | |
| Rudolph Minkowski | Germany | 1895 | 1976 | |
| Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert | Belgium/Netherlands | 1893 | 1970 | |
| Maria Mitchell | United States | 1818 | 1889 | |
| Seidai Miyasaka | Japan | 1955 | ||
| Yoshikane Mizuno | Japan | 1954 | ||
| August Ferdinand Möbius | Germany | 1790 | 1868 | |
| Anthony Moffat | Canada | |||
| Johan Maurits Mohr | Netherlands | 1716 | 1775 | |
| Samuel Molyneux | United Kingdom | 1689 | 1728 | best known for his work in attempting to measure the parallax of Gamma Draconis leading to the discovery of the aberration of light |
| Geminiano Montanari | Italy | 1633 | 1687 | |
| Patrick Moore | United Kingdom | 1923 | 2012 | |
| James Michael Moran | United States | 1943 | ||
| William Wilson Morgan | United States | 1906 | 1994 | |
| Hiroshi Mori | Japan | 1958 | ||
| Amédée Mouchez | France | 1821 | 1892 | |
| Antonín Mrkos | Czechoslovakia | 1918 | 1996 | |
| Jean Mueller | United States | 1950 | ||
| Masaru Mukai | Japan | 1949 | ||
| Gustav Müller | Germany | 1851 | 1925 | |
| Johannes Müller | Germany | 1436 | 1476 | |
| Harutaro Murakami | Japan | 1872 | 1947 | |
| Osamu Muramatsu | Japan | 1949 | ||
| bin Musa Ahmad | Persia | 805 | 873 | |
| bin Musa Hasan | Persia | 810 | 873 | |
| bin Musa Muhammad | Persia | c. 800 | 873 | |
| Nils Mustelin | Finland | 1931 | 2004 | |
| Nilakantha Somayaji | India | 1444 | 1544 | |
| Valentin Naboth | Germany/Italy | 1523 | 1593 | |
| Naburimannu | Babylonia | sometime between 6th century BC and 2nd century BC | ||
| Takeshi Nagata | Japan | 1913 | 1991 | |
| Ahmad Nahavandi | Persia | 7th–8th century | ||
| Akimasa Nakamura | Japan | 1961 | ||
| Syuichi Nakano | Japan | 1947 | ||
| Jayant Narlikar | India | 1938 | ||
| Naubakht | Persia | d. 776 | ||
| Al-fadl ibn Naubakht | Persia | 8th century | ||
| Otto Neugebauer | Germany/United States | 1899 | 1990 | |
| Grigoriy Nikolaevich Neujmin | Georgia/Russia | 1886 | 1946 | |
| Simon Newcomb | United States | 1835 | 1909 | |
| Isaac Newton | United Kingdom | 1643 | 1727 | |
| Seth Barnes Nicholson | United States | 1891 | 1963 | |
| Albertus Antonie Nijland | Netherlands | 1868 | 1936 | |
| Tsuneo Niijima | Japan | 1955 | ||
| Peter Nilson | Sweden | 1937 | 1998 | |
| Hōei Nojiri | Japan | 1885 | 1977 | |
| Jaime Nomen | Spain | 1960 | ||
| Toshiro Nomura | Japan | 1954 | ||
| Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard | Norway | 1966 | ||
| Okuro Oikawa | Japan | 1896 | 1970 | |
| Tarmo Oja | Sweden | 1934 | ||
| Tomimaru Okuni | Japan | 1931 | ||
| Nicolaus Olahus | Hungary | 1493 | 1568 | |
| Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers | Germany | 1758 | 1840 | Was a part of the so-called 'celestial police' group, which made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. |
| Gerard O'Neill | United States | 1927 | 1992 | |
| Jan Hendrik Oort | Netherlands | 1900 | 1992 | Determined that the Milky Way rotates, and disproved that the sun is the center of the Milky Way. |
| Pieter Oosterhoff | Netherlands | 1904 | 1978 | |
| Ernst Öpik | Estonia/Ireland | 1893 | 1985 | |
| José Luis Ortiz Moreno | Spain | 1967 | Led the team to discover the dwarf planet Haumea in 2004 | |
| Yoshiaki Oshima | Japan | 1952 | ||
| Donald Edward Osterbrock | United States | 1924 | 2007 | |
| Liisi Oterma | Finland | 1915 | 2001 | |
| Satoru Otomo | Japan | 1957 | ||
| Jean Abraham Chrétien Oudemans | Netherlands | 1827 | 1906 | |
| Rafael Pacheco | Spain | 1954 | ||
| Bohdan Paczyński | Poland | 1940 | 2007 | |
| Ľudmila Pajdušáková | Czechoslovakia | 1916 | 1979 | |
| Johann Palisa | Austria | 1848 | 1925 | |
| Johann Palitzsch | Germany | 1723 | 1788 | |
| Anton Pannekoek | Netherlands | 1873 | 1960 | |
| Eugene Parker | United States | 1927 | 2022 | |
| William Parsons (Lord Rosse) | Ireland | 1800 | 1867 | discovered the spiral nature of some nebulae, today known to be spiral galaxies |
| Miriani Griselda Pastoriza | Brazil | 1939 | ||
| André Patry | France | 1902 | 1960 | |
| Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin | United Kingdom/United States | 1900 | 1979 | |
| Ruby Payne-Scott | Australia | 1912 | 1981 | |
| James Peebles | Canada/United States | 1935 | ||
| Sir Cuthbert Peek, 2nd Baronet | United Kingdom | 1855 | 1901 | |
| Leslie Copus Peltier | United States | 1900 | 1980 | |
| Roger Penrose | United Kingdom | 1931 | ||
| Arno Penzias | United States/Germany | 1933 | 2024 | |
| Saul Perlmutter | United States | 1959 | Proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding. | |
| Charles Dillon Perrine | United States/Argentina | 1867 | 1951 | |
| Henri Joseph Anastase Perrotin | France | 1845 | 1904 | |
| Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters | Germany/United States | 1813 | 1890 | |
| George Henry Peters | United States | 1863 | 1947 | |
| Mark M. Phillips | United States | 1951 | ||
| Giuseppe Piazzi | Italy | 1746 | 1826 | Discovered the dwarf planet Ceres |
| Edward Charles Pickering | United States | 1846 | 1919 | |
| William Henry Pickering | United States | 1858 | 1938 | |
| Paris Pişmiş | Armenia/Mexico | 1911 | 1999 | |
| Maynard Pittendreigh | United States | 1954 | ||
| Phil Plait | United States | 1964 | ||
| Giovanni Antonio Amedeo Plana | Italy | 1781 | 1864 | |
| Petrus Plancius | Netherlands | 1552 | 1622 | |
| John Stanley Plaskett | Canada | 1865 | 1941 | |
| Norman Robert Pogson | United Kingdom | 1829 | 1891 | |
| Christian Pollas | France | 1947 | ||
| John Pond | England | 1767 | 1836 | |
| Jean-Louis Pons | France | 1761 | 1831 | |
| Carolyn Porco | United States | 1953 | ||
| Vladimír Porubčan | Czechoslovakia | 1940 | ||
| Charles Pritchard | United Kingdom | 1808 | 1893 | |
| Richard Proctor | England | 1837 | 1888 | |
| Milorad B. Protić | Serbia | 1911 | 2001 | |
| Ptolemy of Alexandria | Roman Egypt | c. 85 | 165 | |
| Pierre Puiseux | France | 1855 | 1928 | |
| Georg Purbach | Germany | 1423 | 1461 | |
| Pythagoras of Samos | Greece | 580 BC | 500 BC | |
| Adolphe Quetelet | Belgium | 1796 | 1874 | |
| M. Shahid Qureshi | Pakistan | |||
| Ali Qushji | Ottoman Empire | 1403 | 1474 | |
| David Lincoln Rabinowitz | United States | 1960 | Co-discoverer of the dwarf planet Eris in 2006 | |
| Narayan Chandra Rana | India | 1954 | 1996 [2] | |
| Grote Reber | United States | 1911 | 2002 | |
| Martin Rees | United Kingdom | 1942 | ||
| Edward Ayearst Reeves | United Kingdom | 1862 | 1945 | Geographer and astronomer [3] |
| Hubert Reeves | Canada | 1932 | 2023 | |
| Johannes Müller | Germany | 1436 | 1476 | |
| Julius Reichelt | Germany | 1637 | 1717 | |
| Erasmus Reinhold | Prussia, Germany | 1511 | 1553 | |
| Karl Reinmuth | Germany | 1892 | 1979 | |
| Pieter Johannes van Rhijn | Netherlands | 1886 | 1960 | |
| Giovanni Battista Riccioli | Italy | 1598 | 1671 | discovering the first double star. |
| Mercedes Richards | Jamaica | 1955 | 2016 | Pioneering research in the tomography of interacting binary star systems and cataclysmic variable stars to predict magnetic activity and simulate gas flow is her most known work. She was the first to use tomography in astronomy. |
| Jean Richer | France | 1630 | 1696 | |
| Edward Riddle | England | 1788 | 1854 | |
| Adam Riess | United States | 1969 | He is known for his research in using supernovae as cosmological probes and for being part of the team that proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding. | |
| Fernand Rigaux | Belgium | 1905 | 1962 | |
| George Willis Ritchey | United States | 1864 | 1945 | |
| David Rittenhouse | United States | 1732 | 1796 | |
| Hans-Walter Rix | Germany | 1964 | ||
| Carmelle Robert | Canada | 1962 | ||
| Arjen Roelofs | Netherlands | 1754 | 1824 | |
| Elizabeth Roemer | United States | 1929 | 2016 | |
| Roger of Hereford | England | c. 1176 | 1198 | |
| Nancy G. Roman | United States | 1925 | 2018 | |
| Gustavo E. Romero | Argentina | 1964 | ||
| Ole Christensen Rømer | Denmark | 1644 | 1710 | made the first measurement of the speed of light and discovery that light travels at a finite speed. |
| Otto A. Rosenberger | Germany | 1800 | 1890 | |
| Svein Rosseland | Norway | 1894 | 1985 | |
| Bruno Rossi | Italy | 1905 | 1993 | |
| Laurie Rousseau-Nepton | Canada | |||
| Vera Rubin | United States | 1928 | 2016 | Studied the rotation of Galaxies. Her research provided evidence for the discovery of Dark matter. |
| Henry Chamberlain Russell | Australia | 1836 | 1907 | |
| Henry Norris Russell | United States | 1877 | 1957 | |
| Martin Ryle | United Kingdom | 1918 | 1984 | won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for his role in the discovery of pulsars. |
| Sir Edward Sabine | Ireland | 1788 | 1883 | |
| Sadr al-Shari'a al-Asghar | Uzbekistan | ? | 1346 | He was a theoretical astronomer and religious scholar who created original and sophisticated astronomical theories of time and place, and under circumstances that have long been considered devoid of original scientific research. |
| Carl Sagan | United States | 1934 | 1996 | |
| Megh Nad Saha | India | 1893 | 1956 | |
| Edwin Ernest Salpeter | Austria/Australia/United States | 1924 | 2008 | |
| Allan Rex Sandage | United States | 1926 | 2010 | |
| Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen | Netherlands | 1838 | 1923 | |
| Wallace Leslie William Sargent | United Kingdom/United States | 1935 | 2012 | |
| Anneila Sargent | United Kingdom/United States | 1942 | ||
| Naoto Sato | Japan | 1953 | ||
| Alexandre Schaumasse | France | 1882 | 1958 | |
| Giovanni Schiaparelli | Italy | 1835 | 1910 | |
| Frank Schlesinger | United States | 1871 | 1943 | |
| Bernhard Schmidt | Estonia/Sweden/Germany | 1879 | 1935 | |
| Brian P. Schmidt | United States | 1967 | Proved that the expansion rate of the universe is expanding. | |
| Maarten Schmidt | Netherlands | 1929 | 2022 | |
| Robert Schommer | United States | 1946 | 2001 | |
| Johann Hieronymus Schröter | Germany | 1745 | 1816 | Was a part of the so-called 'celestial police' group, which made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. |
| Lipót Schulhof | Hungary | 1847 | 1921 | |
| Heinrich Christian Schumacher | Germany | 1780 | 1850 | |
| Hans-Emil Schuster | Germany | 1934 | ||
| Samuel Heinrich Schwabe | Germany | 1789 | 1875 | |
| Karl Schwarzschild | Germany | 1873 | 1916 | |
| Martin Schwarzschild | Germany/United States | 1912 | 1997 | |
| Friedrich Karl Arnold Schwassmann | Germany | 1870 | 1964 | |
| James Vernon Scotti | United States | 1960 | ||
| Frederick Hanley Seares | United States | 1873 | 1964 | |
| George Mary Searle | United States | 1839 | 1918 | |
| Angelo Secchi | Italy | 1818 | 1878 | One of the first scientists to state authoritatively that the Sun is a star. |
| Sadao Sei | Japan | |||
| Waltraut Seitter | Germany | 1930 | 2007 | |
| Tsutomu Seki | Japan | 1930 | ||
| Carl Keenan Seyfert | United States | 1911 | 1960 | |
| Grigory Abramovich Shajn | Russia | 1892 | 1956 | |
| Pelageya Fedorovna Shajn | Russia | 1894 | 1956 | |
| Harlow Shapley | United States | 1885 | 1972 | |
| Richard Sheepshanks | United Kingdom | 1794 | 1855 | |
| Shen Kuo | China | 1031 | 1095 | |
| Shi Shen | China | fl. 4th century BC | Shi Shen, together with Gan De compiled China's first star catalogue | |
| Shibukawa Shunkai | Japan | 1639 | 1715 | |
| Yoshisada Shimizu | Japan | 1943 | ||
| Shinzo Shinjo | Japan | 1873 | 1938 | |
| Qutb eddin Shirazi | Persia | 1236 | 1311 | |
| Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky | Russia | 1916 | 1985 | |
| Vladimir Shkodrov | Bulgaria | 1930 | 2010 | |
| Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker | United States | 1929 | 2021 | |
| Eugene Merle Shoemaker | United States | 1928 | 1997 | |
| Edward M. Sion | United States | 1946 | ||
| Willem de Sitter | Netherlands | 1872 | 1934 | De Sitter made major contributions to the field of physical cosmology. He co-authored a paper with Albert Einstein in 1932 in which they discussed the implications of cosmological data for the curvature of the universe. |
| Charlotte Moore Sitterly | United States | 1898 | 1990 | |
| Brian A. Skiff | United States | |||
| John Francis Skjellerup | Australia/South Africa | 1875 | 1952 | |
| Vesto Melvin Slipher | United States | 1875 | 1969 | |
| William Marshall Smart | United Kingdom | 1889 | 1975 | |
| Tamara Mikhaylovna Smirnova | Russia | 1935 | 2001 | |
| George Smoot | United States | 1945 | ||
| William Henry Smyth | United Kingdom | 1788 | 1865 | |
| Snell | Netherlands | 1580 | 1626 | |
| Mary Fairfax Somerville | United Kingdom | 1780 | 1872 | |
| Sir James South | United Kingdom | 1785 | 1867 | |
| Sir Harold Spencer Jones | United Kingdom | 1890 | 1960 | |
| Lyman Spitzer | United States | 1914 | 1997 | |
| Friederich Wilhelm Gustav Spörer | Germany | 1822 | 1895 | |
| Rainer Spurzem | Germany | 1956 | ||
| Anton Staus | Germany | 1872 | 1955 | |
| Joel Stebbins | United States | 1878 | 1966 | |
| Johan Stein | Netherlands | 1871 | 1951 | |
| Karl August von Steinheil | Germany | 1801 | 1870 | |
| Édouard Stephan | France | 1837 | 1923 | |
| David J. Stevenson | New Zealand | 1948 | ||
| Edward James Stone | England | 1831 | 1897 | |
| F. J. M. Stratton | United Kingdom | 1881 | 1960 | |
| Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren | Denmark | 1908 | 1987 | |
| Karl Hermann Struve | Russia/Germany | 1854 | 1920 | |
| Gustav Wilhelm Ludwig Struve | Russia | 1858 | 1920 | |
| Otto Struve | Russia/United States | 1897 | 1963 | |
| Su Song | China | 1020 | 1101 | |
| Matsuo Sugano | Japan | 1939 | ||
| Atsushi Sugie | Japan | |||
| Nicholas Suntzeff | United States | 1952 | ||
| Rashid Alievich Sunyaev | Uzbekistan/Russia/Germany | 1943 | ||
| Shohei Suzuki | Japan | |||
| Lewis A. Swift | United States | 1820 | 1913 | |
| Frédéric Sy | France | 1861 | 1917 | |
| Akihiko Tago | Japan | 1932 | ||
| Atsushi Takahashi | Japan | 1965 | ||
| Kesao Takamizawa | Japan | 1952 | ||
| Yasuo Tanaka | Japan | 1931 | 2018 | |
| Pierre Tardi | France | 1897 | 1972 | |
| Jill Tarter | United States | 1944 | Research in extra-terristrial light. Came up with the name Brown dwarfs for substellar entities. | |
| Joseph Hooton Taylor Jr. | United States | 1941 | ||
| John Tebbutt | Australia | 1834 | 1916 | |
| Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel | Germany | 1821 | 1889 | |
| Thabit ibn Qurra | Iraq | 826 | 901 | |
| Thorvald Nicolai Thiele | Denmark | 1838 | 1910 | |
| Louis Thollon | France | 1829 | 1887 | |
| Norman G. Thomas | United States | 1930 | 2020 | |
| John Thome | United States/Argentina | 1843 | 1908 | |
| Kip Stephen Thorne | United States | 1940 | ||
| Friedrich Tietjen | Germany | 1834 | 1895 | |
| Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley | New Zealand/United States | 1941 | 1981 | |
| François Félix Tisserand | France | 1845 | 1896 | |
| Johann Daniel Titius | Germany | 1729 | 1796 | |
| Clyde W. Tombaugh | United States | 1906 | 1997 | Discovered Pluto as well as numerous asteroids |
| Kōichirō Tomita | Japan | 1925 | 2006 | |
| Richard Tousey | United States | 1908 | 1997 | |
| Charles Townes | United States | 1915 | 2015 | |
| Virginia Trimble | United States | 1943 | ||
| Chad Trujillo | United States | 1973 | Co-discoverer of multiple dwarf planets beyond Pluto, including Quaoar in 2002, Makemake in 2005 and Eris in 2006. This triggered a debate on the definition of a planet. | |
| Robert Julius Trumpler | United States | 1886 | 1956 | |
| R. Brent Tully | United States | 1943 | ||
| Herbert Hall Turner | England | 1861 | 1930 | Coined the term Parsec, a very large unit of distance to measure the distance to objects outside the solar system |
| Nasir al-Din Tusi | Persia | 1201 | 1274 | |
| Horace Parnell Tuttle | United States | 1839 | 1923 | |
| Neil deGrasse Tyson | United States | 1958 | ||
| Seiji Ueda | Japan | 1952 | ||
| Ulugh Beg | Uzbekistan | 1394 | 1449 | |
| Antonio de Ulloa | Spain | 1716 | 1795 | |
| Albrecht Unsöld | Germany | 1905 | 1995 | |
| Takeshi Urata | Japan | 1947 | 2012 | |
| Mu'ayyad al-Din al-Urdi | Persia | c. 1200 | 1266 | |
| Fumiaki Uto | Japan | |||
| Yrjö Väisälä | Finland | 1891 | 1971 | |
| Benjamin Valz | France | 1787 | 1867 | |
| James Van Allen | United States | 1914 | 2006 | |
| George Van Biesbroeck | Belgium/United States | 1880 | 1974 | |
| Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst | Netherlands | 1918 | 2000 | |
| Peter van de Kamp | United States | 1901 | 1995 | |
| Sidney van den Bergh | Canada | 1929 | ||
| Martin van den Hove | Netherlands | 1605 | 1639 | |
| Hendricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuyzen | Netherlands | 1838 | 1923 | |
| Hendrik van Gent | Netherlands/South Africa | 1900 | 1947 | |
| Cornelis Johannes van Houten | Netherlands | 1920 | 2002 | |
| Pieter Johannes van Rhijn | Netherlands | 1886 | 1960 | |
| Sylvie Vauclair | France | 1946 | ||
| Gérard de Vaucouleurs | France/United States | 1918 | 1995 | |
| Zdeňka Vávrová | Czechoslovakia | 1945 | ||
| Jean-Pierre Verdet | France | 1932 | ||
| Philippe Véron | France | 1939 | 2014 | |
| Frank Washington Very | United States | 1852 | 1927 | |
| Yvon Villarceau | France | 1813 | 1883 | |
| Julie Vinter Hansen | Denmark | 1890 | 1960 | |
| Hermann Carl Vogel | Germany | 1841 | 1907 | |
| Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve | Germany/Russia | 1793 | 1864 | |
| Otto Wilhelm von Struve | Russia | 1819 | 1905 | |
| Alexander N. Vyssotsky | Russia/United States | 1888 | 1973 | His best known work is probably a catalog with five lists of stars titled Dwarf M Stars Found Spectrophotometrically. This work was important because it was the first list of nearby stars identified not by their motions in the sky, but by their intrinsic, spectroscopic, characteristics. |
| Emma Vyssotsky | United States | 1894 | 1975 | |
| Arno Arthur Wachmann | Germany | 1902 | 1990 | |
| Abul Wáfa | Persia | 940 | 997/998 | |
| Walcher of Malvern | England | ? | 1135 | |
| George Wallerstein | United States | 1930 | 2021 | |
| William Wales | United Kingdom | c. 1734 | 1798 | |
| Qingde Wang | United States/China | |||
| Kazuro Watanabe | Japan | 1955 | ||
| James Craig Watson | United States | 1838 | 1880 | |
| Edmund Weaver | United Kingdom | 1663 | 1748 | |
| Kim Weaver | United States | 1969 | ||
| Thomas William Webb | United Kingdom | 1807 | 1885 | |
| Alfred Lothar Wegener | Germany | 1880 | 1930 | |
| Gary A. Wegner | United States | 1944 | ||
| Wei Pu | China | 960 | 1279 | |
| Karl von Weizsäcker | Germany | 1912 | 2007 | |
| Godefroy Wendelin | Belgium | 1580 | 1667 | |
| Richard M. West | Denmark | 1941 | ||
| Gart Westerhout | Netherlands/United States | 1927 | 2012 | |
| Bengt Westerlund | Sweden | 1921 | 2008 | |
| J. G. Westphal | Germany | 1824 | 1859 | |
| Johann Heinrich Westphal | Germany/Italy | 1794 | 1831 | |
| George Wetherill | United States | 1925 | 2006 | |
| John Archibald Wheeler | United States | 1911 | 2008 | Popularizing the term 'wormholes', theoretical holes in spacetime |
| Fred Lawrence Whipple | United States | 1906 | 2004 | |
| Albert Whitford | United States | 1905 | 2002 | |
| Mary Watson Whitney | United States | 1847 | 1921 | |
| Chandra Wickramasinghe | United Kingdom | 1939 | ||
| Paul Wild | Switzerland | 1925 | 2014 | |
| Olin C. Wilson | United States | 1909 | 1994 | |
| Rogier Windhorst | United States | 1955 | ||
| Robert Wilson | United States | 1936 | ||
| Vincent Wing | United Kingdom | 1619 | 1668 | Author of the Astronomia Britannica (published in 1669). |
| John Winthrop | Massachusetts Bay Colony | 1714 | 1779 | |
| Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke | Germany | 1835 | 1897 | |
| Carl Wirtanen | United States | 1910 | 1990 | |
| Jack Wisdom | United States | 1953 | ||
| Gustav Witt | Germany | 1866 | 1946 | |
| Maximilian Wolf | Germany | 1863 | 1932 | |
| Aleksander Wolszczan | Poland | 1946 | Co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. | |
| Richard van der Riet Woolley | United Kingdom | 1906 | 1986 | |
| Thomas Wright | United Kingdom | 1711 | 1786 | |
| Issei Yamamoto | Japan | 1889 | 1959 | |
| Masayuki Yanai | Japan | 1959 | ||
| Yi Xing | China | 683 | 727 | |
| Anne Sewell Young | United States | 1871 | 1961 | |
| Charles Augustus Young | United States | 1834 | 1908 | |
| James Whitney Young | United States | 1941 | ||
| Franz Xaver von Zach | Germany | 1753 | 1832 | The founder of the so-called 'celestial police', an informal group of astronomers looking for additional planets after the discovery of Uranus. The Celestial Police made the orbital calculations leading to the discovery of the asteroid belt and many dwarf planets between Mars and Jupiter. |
| Abraham Zacuto | Spain/Portugal | 1450 | 1510 | His mapping of stars lead to breakthroughs in navigation |
| John Zarnecki | United Kingdom | 1949 | ||
| Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich | USSR | 1914 | 1987 | |
| Zhang Daqing | China | 1969 | ||
| Zhang Heng | China | 78 | 139 | |
| Zhang Yuzhe | China | 1902 | 1986 | |
| Lyudmila Vasil'evna Zhuravleva | Russia/Ukraine | 1946 | ||
| Felix Ziegel | Soviet Union | 1920 | 1988 | |
| Zu Chongzhi | China | 429 | 500 | |
| Fritz Zwicky | Switzerland/United States | 1898 | 1974 | Zwicky was the first to use the virial theorem to discover the existence of a gravitational anomaly, which he termed dark matter. |
| Hong-Yee Chiu | Taiwan/United States | 1932 | Coined the term "Quasar" for the light emitted from the area around Supermassive black holes | |
| Su-Shu Huang | China/United States | 1915 | 1977 | Developed the idea that all stars have a habitable zone, a distance where water could be liquid on the surface and thus there would be potential for life. |
| Johann Heinrich von Mädler | Germany | 1794 | 1874 | Together with Wilhelm Beer he produced the first exact map of the Moon and of Mars |
In alphabetical order:
The following is a list of people who are not astronomers but made a contribution to the field of astronomy and astrophysics.
A naval ensign is an ensign used by naval ships of various countries to denote their nationality. It can be the same or different from a country's civil ensign or state ensign.
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