Hendrik van Gent (1900 – March 29, 1947, Amsterdam) was a Dutch astronomer.
He moved to South Africa in 1928 in order to observe the southern sky at the Leiden Southern Station and the Union Observatory in Johannesburg. He obtained his PhD from Leiden University in 1931. He studied variable stars, and also discovered a number of asteroids and comets. The crater Van Gent on the far side of the Moon, and the asteroid 1666 van Gent are named after him.
He died of a heart attack while on leave in the Netherlands.
Famous quotes containing the word van:
“Unlike Descartes, we own and use our beliefs of the moment, even in the midst of philosophizing, until by what is vaguely called scientific method we change them here and there for the better. Within our own total evolving doctrine, we can judge truth as earnestly and absolutely as can be, subject to correction, but that goes without saying.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)