Michael J. S. Belton (September 29, 1934 – June 4, 2018) was President of Belton Space Exploration Initiatives and Emeritus Astronomer at theKitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.[1][2] Belton served as the Chair of the 2002Planetary Science Decadal Survey guiding NASA and other US Government Agencies plans for solar system exploration.[3] Belton studied first at theUniversity of St. Andrews in Scotland and earned his PhD at theUniversity of California at Berkeley for his doctoral thesis on "The Interaction of Type II Comet Tails with the Interplanetary Medium".[4]
Belton was born inBognor Regis, England.[5] He led theGalileo Imaging Science Team in high-resolution imaging studies ofVenus,Jupiter,Jupiter's moonsIo,Europa,Ganymede andCallisto, Earth'sMoon as well asasteroidsIda,Gaspra, andDactyl. The team also studied the collision ofcomet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter.[4]
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