French astrophysicist Andre Brahic, the pioneer in the discovery of planet Neptune's rings, is no more. He passed away at 73 years old on Sunday in Paris. 

Brahic was a specialist in the solar system and dispatched a project in 1984, alongside US space expert William Hubbard, which prompted the leap forward. 

French President Francois Hollande grieved Brahic's death through an announcement which hailed him as an extraordinary mind "who knew how to make simple the mysteries of the sky". 

Hollande likewise portrayed him as an incredible teacher "whose books and comments allowed us to voyage through space". 

Brahic was born at the time of the second world war - in a modest family in Nazi-occupied Paris in 1942; Evry Schatzman initiated Brahic into astrophysics; he was considered as the father of the discipline in France. 

In the 1980s, Brahic turned into a master in exploring our solar system with the assistance of the NASA Voyager and later US-Europe Cassini unmanned missions, which proceed right up until today. 

He was an astrophysicist at the Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA) and an educator at the University of Paris. 

It was his enthusiasm for Saturn and its rings which drove him to dispatch his Neptune research. Neptune is the eighth and the farthest known planet from the Sun in our solar system.It was discovered on September 23, 1846, by a group of scientists at the Berlin Observatory.

Neptune's furthest ring is partitioned into three circular segments to which Brahic gave the names Liberte, Fraternite and Egalite. 

In 1990, an asteroid, number 3488, was named Brahic in his honor. 

Enthusiastic about bringing astrophysics to a more extensive open, Brahic wrote a few books. 

His last book "Universes Elsewhere; Are We Alone" was distributed a year ago. 

His publisher, Odile Jacob, broke the news of his death. 

Here, check out some interesting facts about Neptune.