Neil deGrasse Tyson of Nova Now fame. Following in Sagan's footsteps as
far as making science accessible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson

Tyson has better graphics though.

The saddest part of the
comparison is that there was a guy popularizing astronomy and science 25
years ago, and there's a guy doing it now and Bill Nye for kids in
between.

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

Edwin Hubble, the guy the space telescope is named after.

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

Oh, 21st century. Hmm, those other guys are dead.

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

Shawn wrote:
Neil deGrasse Tyson of Nova Now fame. Following in Sagan's footsteps as
far as making science accessible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_deGrasse_Tyson

Tyson is a featherweight compared to Sagan. His command of analogy is
far inferior--that's a big difference, considering that well-constructed
analogies are a great way to convey science to the general public.

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

How about this: Tyson has a conversational manner that I find more
engaging than Sagan's gee whiz sharing of his wonder at the Cosmos. IMO
I find Tyson informative, more of a reporter, whereas Sagan was more of
an evangelist.

Shawn wrote:
Tyson has better graphics though. :-)

Hardly a ringing endorsement, I think.

The saddest part of the
comparison is that there was a guy popularizing astronomy and science 25
years ago, and there's a guy doing it now and Bill Nye for kids in
between.

I must be having trouble parsing this: What is sad about the thing you
pointed out?

It's great that Sagan, Tyson, Nye, or even the Myth Busters are (or

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

On 27 Jan 2007 15:28:16 -0800, "Sitav" <sitav_n...@yahoo.com> wrote:

who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.We're not too far into the 21st Century, so in terms of major work done
in the last five years, that would be hard to say. But there are many
famous astronomers who have produced great work in the last 25 year or
so, and remain active today:

Alan Guth
Stephen Hawking
Kip Thorne
Jocelyn Bell
Roger Penrose

Alan Guth
Stephen Hawking
Kip Thorne
Jocelyn Bell
Roger Penrose

Are all those mentioned above truly astronomers? I don't think so.

Alan Guth
Stephen Hawking
Kip Thorne
Jocelyn Bell
Roger Penrose


Are all those mentioned above truly astronomers? I don't think so.

As far as noteworthy astronomers go, I might suggest Geoffrey Marcy, who
leads the pack in discovering the exoplanets.

Sitav wrote:
who are the "famous" astronomers of the 21st century. i havent heard
of many well known astronomers or astrophysicists.........yet.

Famous to whom? I'll never forget when I first started college I took a
writing class. We had the assignment to write about someone famous. I
chose to write about Sir William Herschel.

In this class we all sat in a circle. The author read his/her paper
while the rest of the class listened. Everyone was encouraged to offer
critiques during the reading.

When it came my turn I was pretty nervous. My very first sentence went
something like, ".. the famous astronomer William Herschel..." Right
away a woman spoke up (she no doubt had written about some pop star) and
said, "How can he be famous, I've never heard of him!" The rest of the
class looked at each other and agreed!

Yet of course Herschel is one of the most famous astronomers of all
time, most notably because he discovered Uranus, which put him among a
very select few who could make such a claim.

The problem, of course, was that the young college students in the class
couldn't have named *any* famous astronomers, except perhaps Sagan.

My point is that perhaps "famous" isn't really the right question. It
relies too much on popular culture. Perhaps "noteworthy" would be better?

As far as noteworthy astronomers go, I might suggest Geoffrey Marcy, who
leads the pack in discovering the exoplanets.

--
Greg Crinklaw
Astronomical Software Developer
Cloudcroft, New Mexico, USA (33N, 106W, 2700m)

SkyTools: http://www.skyhound.com/cs.html
Observing:http://www.skyhound.com/sh/skyhound.html
Comets: http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html

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