Dominique Bockelée-Morvan (born 1957) is a Frenchastrophysicist andplanetary scientist specializing in the molecular composition ofcomets.^[1] She is a director of research for theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated with theParis Observatory,^[2] and a former president of Commission 15 on the Physical Study of Comets & Minor Planets of theInternational Astronomical Union.^[3]

Bockelée-Morvan earned a doctorate in 1987 throughParis Diderot University, with the dissertationLes 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 theInternational Astronomical Union, from 2012 to 2015.^[3]

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 theinterstellar medium, and withprebiotic 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 theRosetta space probe and its 2014 flyby study of comet67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.^[2][5] Beyond comets, she has also contributed to the first discovery ofwater vapor on the asteroidCeres.^[5]

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

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

Asteroid4020 Dominique, discovered in 1981, was named after Bockelée-Morvan.^[1]

• 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 978-0-8165-2450-1
• 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

• 1957 births
• Living people
• French astrophysicists
• French planetary scientists
• Women planetary scientists
• French women scientists
• Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research

• CS1 French-language sources (fr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2023
• Use list-defined references from March 2023