Erzsébet Illés, a Hungarian astronomer, died on April 2, 2026, at the age of 89.
She was also a space researcher and planetologist, and served as an emerita researcher at the Konkoly Thege Miklós Astronomical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Illés spent her entire research career at the institute in Budapest.
After the launch of the first artificial satellites in 1957, she joined a research group carrying out optical observations of satellites to study Sun–Earth physical relationships. In 1961, she completed training on the Ural-1 computer and became one of the first Hungarian astronomers to apply digital computing to astronomical research.
Erzsébet Illés, 89, Hungarian astronomer.