Named in honor of Donald E. Brownlee, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington. Brownlee is renowned for his successful recovery, identification and chemical and minerological investigation of extraterrestrial particles from the atmosphere — the “Brownlee” particles. He showed that many of these particles very probably are cometary dust. Brownlee also extracted and studied extraterrestrial particles from deep sea sediments and polar ice. His results from the interplanetary dust captured by the earth provide especially important clues about the material from which comets accreted. (M 18450) _ _.
