Brahic, André Fernand

Brahic, André Fernand,

1942–2016, French astrophysicist, b. Paris. He was introduced to astrophysics by Evry Schatzman, a leading French theoretician, and obtained his doctorate from the Univ. of Paris, where he later was a professor. A specialist in the study of the solar system, he was involved in the 1980s with the NASA Voyager and the U.S.–Europe Cassini space probe missions. His prediction of the rings of Neptune in 1984 led to their detection (as arcs) and later imaging by Voyager 2. He was a member of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission and wrote several books on astronomy and cosmology.