Leif Erland Andersson

Who was Leif Erland Andersson?

Leif Erland Andersson was a Swedish astronomer.

Andersson studied at Lund University, but received a scholarship to an observatory in Sicily in 1968, after which he went to Indiana University Bloomington to complete his Ph.D. degree. He later worked at the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Andersson calculated the first observable transits of Pluto and Charon in the early 1980s, but did not live to see them.

Andersson was a child prodigy who won the Swedish television quiz show 10.000-kronorsfrågan twice, the first time at age 16.

Andersson married Gloria Ptacek in 1973 at the Beck Chapel at Indiana University.

After his early death of lymphatic cancer at the age of 35, the crater Andersson on the Moon was named after him. He was survived by his wife.