1920-

American astronomer known for his studies of recently formed stars and the star-formation process. Working independently, he and Guillermo Haro discovered Herbig-Haro objects, a glowing gas cloud surrounding new stars thought to form when gas jets from the star collide with interstellar material. Herbig has also made spectroscopic observations of the gas and dust that lies between stars in the Milky Way galaxy, from which stars form.