Dominique Bockelée-Morvan

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Dominique Bockelée-Morvan (born 1957) is a French astrophysicist and planetary scientist specializing in the molecular composition of comets.[1] She is a director of research for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with the Paris Observatory,[2] and a former president of Commission 15 on the Physical Study of Comets & Minor Planets of the International Astronomical Union.[3]

Education and career[edit]

Bockelée-Morvan earned a doctorate in 1987 through Paris Diderot University, with the dissertation Les conditions d'excitation des molecules meres dans les atmospheres cometaires : applications a l'eau et a l'acide cyanhydrique, supervised by Jacques Crovisier.[4]

She was president of Commission 15 on the Physical Study of Comets & Minor Planets of the International Astronomical Union, from 2012 to 2015.[3]

Research[edit]

Bockelée-Morvan brought the study of comets from a (literally) dusty backwater of planetary science into the mainstream.[2][5] Through infrared and radio observations of comets,[2] and the development of excitation models for cometary chemicals,[1] she has found over 20 different molecular impurities in their ice.[2] Her work found connections between the makeup of comets and of the interstellar medium, and with prebiotic chemistry.[5] She has also helped explain the 3.4 µm-wavelength emissions of comets.[1]

She has been a collaborator on the MIRO and VIRTIS experiments on the Rosetta space probe and its 2014 flyby study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.[2][5] Beyond comets, she has also contributed to the first discovery of water vapor on the asteroid Ceres.[5]

Recognition[edit]

Bockelée-Morvan was the 1991 winner of the Thorlet Prize [fr] of the French Academy of Sciences, for her studies of Halley's Comet. She won the young researcher prize of the Société Française d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique (SF2A) in 1992.[6]

She received the David Bates Medal of the European Geosciences Union in 2002, "for her exceptional observations and interpretations of the composition of comets".[7] She received the CNRS Silver Medal in 2014.[2][5]

Asteroid 4020 Dominique, discovered in 1981, was named after Bockelée-Morvan.[1]

Selected publications[edit]

  • Bockelée-Morvan, D. (July 1987), "A model for the excitation of water in comets", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 181 (1): 169–181, Bibcode:1987A&A...181..169B
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Brooke, T. Y.; Crovisier, J. (July 1995), "On the origin of the 3.2- to 3.6-μm emission features in comets", Icarus, 116 (1): 18–39, Bibcode:1995Icar..116...18B, doi:10.1006/icar.1995.1111
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Gautier, D.; Lis, D.C.; Young, K.; Keene, J.; Phillips, T.; Owen, T.; Crovisier, J.; Goldsmith, P.F.; Bergin, E.A.; Despois, D.; Wootten, A. (May 1998), "Deuterated water in comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) and its implications for the origin of comets" (PDF), Icarus, 133 (1): 147–162, Bibcode:1998Icar..133..147B, doi:10.1006/icar.1998.5916, S2CID 121830932
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Lis, D. C.; Wink, J. E.; Despois, D.; Crovisier, J.; Bachiller, R.; Benford, D. J.; Biver, N.; Colom, P.; Davies, J. K.; Gérard, E.; Germain, B.; Houde, M.; Mehringer, D.; Moreno, R.; Paubert, G.; Phillips, T. G.; Rauer, H. (January 2000), "New molecules found in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp): Investigating the link between cometary and interstellar material", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 353: 1101–1114, Bibcode:2000A&A...353.1101B
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Gautier, D.; Hersant, F.; Huré, J.-M.; Robert, F. (March 2002), "Turbulent radial mixing in the solar nebula as the source of crystalline silicates in comets", Astronomy & Astrophysics, 384 (3): 1107–1118, Bibcode:2002A&A...384.1107B, doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020086, S2CID 221311321
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Crovisier, J.; Mumma, M. J.; Weaver, H. A. (2004), "The composition of cometary volatiles" (PDF), in Festou, M.; Keller, H. U.; Weaver, Harold A. (eds.), Comets II, University of Arizona Press, pp. 391–424, Bibcode:2004come.book..391B, ISBN 9780816524501
  • Küppers, Michael; O'Rourke, Laurence; Bockelée-Morvan, Dominique; Zakharov, Vladimir; Lee, Seungwon; von Allmen, Paul; Carry, Benoît; Teyssier, David; Marston, Anthony; Müller, Thomas; Crovisier, Jacques; Barucci, M. Antonietta; Moreno, Raphael (January 2014), "Localized sources of water vapour on the dwarf planet (1) Ceres", Nature, 505 (7484): 525–527, Bibcode:2014Natur.505..525K, doi:10.1038/nature12918, PMID 24451541, S2CID 4448395
  • Bockelée-Morvan, D.; Biver, N. (May 2017), "The composition of cometary ices", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 375 (2097): 20160252, Bibcode:2017RSPTA.37560252B, doi:10.1098/rsta.2016.0252, PMID 28554972

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Schmadel, Lutz D. (2012), "(4020) Dominique", Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, vol. 2 (6th ed.), Springer, p. 321, ISBN 9783642297182
  2. ^ a b c d e f Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, Chercheuse en astrophysique (in French), French National Centre for Scientific Research, September 2014, retrieved 2023-03-04
  3. ^ a b "Dominique Bockelee-Morvan", Individual members, International Astronomical Union, retrieved 2023-03-04
  4. ^ Bockelée-Morvan, Dominique; Crovisier, J. (January 1987), "Les conditions d'excitation des molecules meres dans les atmospheres cometaires : applications a l'eau et a l'acide cyanhydrique", Theses.fr (These de doctorat), retrieved 2023-03-04
  5. ^ a b c d e Deux chercheurs de l'Observatoire de Paris lauréats de médailles du CNRS 2014 (in French), Paris Observatory, retrieved 2023-03-04
  6. ^ "Liste des médailles, prix, honneurs, distinctions" (PDF), Laboratoire d'Études Spatiales et d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA) (in French), Paris Observatory, retrieved 2023-03-04
  7. ^ David Bates Medal 2002: Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, European Geosciences Union, retrieved 2023-03-04