Donald Lynden-Bell – one of the subjects of Star Men, English astronomer and astrophysicist, former president of the Royal Astronomical Society, known for his theories on the existence of massive black holes in the hearts of galaxies. Lynden-Bell is a member of a group of astronomers known as the “Seven Samurai” (David Burstein, Roger Davies, Alan Dresser, Sandra Faber, Donald Lynden-Bell, Robert J. Terlevich, Gary Wegner), which postulated the existence of the Great Attractor – a huge cluster of galaxies influencing the motion of our galaxy and the entire Local Cluster. Lynden-Bell received the Eddington Medal (1984), the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1993), and the Bruce Medal (1998). In 2000 he was awarded the American Astronomical Society’ s Henry Norris Russell Lectureship. Asteroid 18235 received the name Lynden-Bell in his honor.
2016-05-04
