| About | Antonín Mrkos (January 27th, 1918 – May 29th, 1996) was a Czech astronomer, discoverer of comets and asteroids. In 1945, after World War II, he began working at the Skalnaté pleso Observatory in Slovakia. Although in 1966 – 1991 he was a director of Klet’ observatory it is associated with the observatory Skalnaté pleso as the most decisive period of his scientific work, when he started his active cometary programme.
During 1977 – 1991 years Antonín Mrkos discovered 273 asteroids and 13 comets. Among his discoveries were asteroids: Amor asteroid (5797) Bivoj (discovered on January 13, 1980) and Jupiter Trojan (3451) Mentor (discovered on April 19th, 1984). On October 19th, 1955 he recovered comet 18D/Perrine–Mrkos that was originally discovered by the American-Argentine astronomer Charles Dillon Perrine and considered to be lost. Since its recovery date the comet was observed only once during 1968 perihelion passage. Antonín Mrkos was also a co-discoverer of short-period comets 45P/Honda–Mrkos–Pajdušáková, 143P/Kowal–Mrkos, a discoverer of comet 124P/Mrkos and non-periodic comet C/1957 P1(Mrkos). Comet C/1957 P1 was very much remarkable due to its brightness (comet reached 1st magnitude; August 2-5, 1957; Hoag, Lausten) and a tail up to 10 degrees long (on August 16-17, 1957; George A. Van Biesbroeck).
Antonin Mrkos took part as a member of the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1957–1959 years) and later on as a head of the Czechoslovakian team in the 7th Soviet Antarctic Expedition (1961-1963 years), where he’d been studying auroras. He was the second Czech in Antarctica and the first Czechoslovak who had reached the Southern pole of inaccessibility. Next time he was also invited to take part in expedition, but had to refuse because of fatal accident that happened to him (he was thought to be poisoned).
Antonin Mrkos was associate professor at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Charles University in Prague and the University of South Bohemia. One of the streets in Prague was named in his honor; in the recognition of his significant scientific contribution main belt asteroid was named 1832 Mrkos.
Literature:
1. [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton%C3%ADn_Mrkos ]”Antonin Mrkos”[/url]. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
2. [url= http://www.national-geographic.cz/detail/prvni-cesky-vedec-na-antarktide-vyzkum-v-nejdrsnejsich-podminkach-na-zemi-18779 ]“První český vědec na Antarktidě: Výzkum v nejdrsnějších podmínkách na Zemi”[/url] by Hynek Adámek, National Geographic Czech, 18 May 2012 (Czech).
3. [url= http://cometography.com/pcomets/018d.html] “18D/Perrine–Mrkos “. Gary W. Kronk's Cometography. |
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