* Astronomy

Bohdan Paczynski, renowned astrophysicist, dies at age 67

Princeton astrophysicist Bohdan Paczynski, whose insights into the nature of celestial phenomena guided many developments in his field, died April 19 after a three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 67.

Paczynski's pioneering efforts to develop the technique called gravitational lensing permitted the discovery of the first terrestrial planet found outside our solar system. Despite widespread skepticism from the astrophysics community, he also championed the idea that the still-mysterious events known as gamma ray bursts originated billions of light years away rather than within our own Milky Way galaxy -- a theory that was ultimately confirmed by observations.

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