Aaronson, Marc (1950 - 1987)
M. Aaronson was born in 1950. After studies at the California Institute of Technology he received a BSc in 1972 and worked as Associate Professor for Astronomy at the University of Arizona. His work concentrated on three fields:

1.) the determination of the Hubble Constant H₀, using the Tully-Fisher relation (ApJ, 303, 1 (1986)),
2.) carbon rich stars (together with J. Mould) and
3.) the velocity distribution of those stars in spheric dwarf galaxies (together with Edward Olszewski).

M. Aaronson was killed during a tragic accident in the evening hours of 30 April 1987 in the dome of the 4-m Mayall Telescope atop Kitt Peak. Due to a malfunction of the emergency stop , Aaronson got caught in the catwalk door of the turning telescope dome when the outer stepladder closed it.

Minor Planet (3277) Aaronson is named in his honor.

Reference:
Sterne und Weltraum 26 (1987), Nr. 9, p. 465 (incl. drawing)
Dictionary of Minor Planets, 2. Edition, by Lutz D. Schmadel, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.

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