Cyril Hazard

Cyril Hazard (18 March 1928 – 14 June 2025) was a British astronomer. He is known for revolutionising quasar observation with John Bolton in 1962. His work allowed other astronomers to find redshifts from the emission lines from other radio sources.

Early work

Cyril Hazard was born on 18 March 1928 in No.6, Flosh Cottages, Cleator, Cumberland. Cyril Hazard grew up in Cleator Moor, Cumberland.. He got his doctorate from the University of Manchester, studying under Sir Bernard Lovell and Robert Hanbury Brown. He worked first at Jodrell Bank. during one of the occultations using the Parkes Radio Telescope allowed Maarten Schmidt to optically identify the object and obtain an optical spectrum using the 200-inch Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar. This spectrum revealed the same strange emission lines. Schmidt realized that these were actually spectral lines of hydrogen redshifted at the rate of 15.8 percent. This discovery showed that 3C 273 was receding at a rate of 47,000 km/s.

Death and legacy Hazard died at his home in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, on 14 June 2025, at the age of 97.

The minor planet 9305 Hazard, discovered on 7 October 1986 by Ted Bowell, was named after him.