George Herbig


George Howard Herbig was an American astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. He is perhaps best known for the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects.

Background

Born in 1920 in Wheeling, West Virginia, Herbig received his Ph.D in 1948 at the University of California, Berkeley; his dissertation is entitled A Study of Variable Stars in Nebulosity.

Career

His specialty was stars at an early stage of evolution and the interstellar medium. He was perhaps best known for his discovery, with Guillermo Haro, of the Herbig–Haro objects; bright patches of nebulosity excited by bipolar outflow from a star being born.
Herbig also made prominent contributions to the field of diffuse interstellar band research, especially through a series of nine articles published between 1963 and 1995 entitled "The diffuse interstellar bands."

Honors

Awards
Named after him
212.