Olin Jeuck Eggen (July 9 1919 – October 2 1998) was an American astronomer. Some sources incorrectly give his name as Olin Jenck Eggen.

He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1940. After serving in World War II in the OSS, he returned to the university and received his Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1948.

He became known as one of the best observational astronomers of his time. He is best known for a seminal 1962 paper with Donald Lynden-Bell and Allan Sandage which suggested for the first time that the Galaxy had collapsed out of a gas cloud. He first introduced the now-accepted notion of moving groups of stars.

After his death he was found to have been in possession of highly significant historical files and documents that had apparently gone missing for decades from the Royal Greenwich Observatory, including the "Neptune file". During his lifetime he had always denied having taken the papers or having them in his possession.

He won the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship in 1985.

External links

• http://www.noao.edu/noao/noaonews/dec98/node6.html
• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/nk/neptune/takes.htm
• http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000CA850-8EA4-119B-8EA483414B7FFE9F

Obituaries

• BAAS 32 (2000), 1661 (obituary)