Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd | |
|---|---|
 Levasseur-Regourd in 2015 | |
| Born | 16 April 1945 |
| Died | August 1, 2022(2022-08-01) (aged 77) |
| Alma mater | École normale supérieure Cachan |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
Anny-Chantal Levasseur-Regourd (16 April 1945[1] – August 1, 2022) was a French astronomer known for her research oncomet dust andinterplanetary dust.[2]
Levasseur-Regourd was a student at theÉcole normale supérieure Cachan, and completed a PhD in 1976 on satellite observations ofzodiacal light, under the direction ofJacques Blamont.[3] In 1977, Levasseur-Regourd was the only woman among 53 finalists for theESA astronaut program, although she never went to space. She became a professor atPierre and Marie Curie University in 1985, and retired asprofessor emeritus in 2013.[2]
She was the principal investigator for theGiotto Optical Probe Experiment, part of a mid-1980s ESA space mission to exploreHalley's Comet.[2][4] The instrument was still active during the probe's flyby of26P/Grigg–Skjellerup and was used to make the first estimate of how close the flyby was.[5]
Asteroid6170 Levasseur, discovered in 1981, was named for her.[2][4]
Levasseur-Regourd was the recipient of the Thorlet Prize of the French Academy of Sciences in 1976, the Glaxo Prize for scientific popularization in 1982, and the women's prize of theSociété astronomique de France in 1986. She was named as an officer in theLegion of Honour in 2013.[2]
Levasseur-Regourd's popular-press bookL'atmosphère et ses phénomènes (1980) won the Glaxo Prize.[6] She was also the author of two popular-press books on comets,Halley, le roman des comètes (with Philippe De La Cotardière, 1985), andL’exploration cométaire: De l'Antiquité à Rosetta (with Janet Borg, 2018).[7]
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