Astrophysicist Hubert Reeves has died at the age of 91

Astrophysicist Hubert Reeves died on Friday October 13 at the age of 91, his son Benoît announced to franceinfo. “He left in peace, to join the stars. A peaceful death, at 3:15 p.m.”, did he declare. “My entire family joins me in the pain of having to announce to you that our dear father left to join the stars today”he had written a few minutes before on his Facebook account.

Hubert Reeves liked to compare humans to stardust. Born in 1932 in Montreal, the scientist was a great popularizer. He had been naturalized French. He studied at the University of Montreal and McGill before obtaining his doctorate in nuclear astrophysics from Cornell University in 1960, as recalled by Radio-Canada.

The journalist Mathieu Vidard, who presents the scientific program “La tête au carré” on France Inter, was one of the first to pay tribute to him. “He embodied the scientist who knows how to share his knowledge with passion and generosity”he wrote on X.