astronomy

Kaare Aksnes

Kaare Aksnes is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kaare Aksnes rather than just read about it. In short: Kaare Aksnes (25 March 1938 – 22 February 2026) was a Norwegian astrophysicist. Personal life He was born in Kvam Municipality in Hordaland county.

Key takeaways

Kaare Aksnes belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kaare Aksnes to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kaare Aksnes from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Kaare Aksnes (25 March 1938 – 22 February 2026) was a Norwegian astrophysicist.

Personal life He was born in Kvam Municipality in Hordaland county. He was a brother of the chemist Gunnar Aksnes. His parents were farmers. In 1959 he married teacher Liv Kristin Marøy.

Career He finished his secondary education in 1956, and graduated with the cand.real. degree in 1963, having studied in both Bergen and Oslo. From 1964 to 1965 he was a research assistant at Harestua. He then worked in the United States for several years, and took the Ph.D. at Yale University in 1969. His doctor's thesis is today a standard work within estimating the course of planets, moons, meteors, comets and artificial sounds. His work is among other things used by NASA's Voyager sounds to Jupiter, and he received the NASA Group Achievement Award for his work. After several years at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts he returned from the United States to Norway in 1978, where he was employed at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment from 1978 to 1988. He was also an assisting professor at the University of Tromsø from 1980. In 1988 he was appointed as a professor at the University of Oslo. From 1993 he was also responsible for the official Norwegian almanac. He is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 1991. Since 1990 he presides over the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature, which maintains the astronomical naming conventions and planetary nomenclature for planetary bodies. Already in 1978, the asteroid 2067 Aksnes was named after Aksnes. In 2006 he received the HM The King's Medal of Merit in gold. He died in February 2026 in Bærum.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kaare Aksnes

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kaare Aksnes claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kaare Aksnes before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kaare Aksnes ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kaare Aksnes

In research: Kaare Aksnes appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kaare Aksnes in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kaare Aksnes is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 2026 deaths, Academic staff of the University of Oslo, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kaare Aksnes outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kaare Aksnes in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kaare Aksnes means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kaare Aksnes out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kaare Aksnes in simple terms?

Kaare Aksnes (25 March 1938 – 22 February 2026) was a Norwegian astrophysicist. Personal life He was born in Kvam Municipality in Hordaland county.

Why does Kaare Aksnes matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kaare Aksnes?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kaare Aksnes.