Peter Nilson (17 October 1937 – 8 March 1998) was a Swedish astronomer and novelist.

Active at Uppsala University, he compiled a catalogue of galaxies containing nearly 13,000 entries.

He was born in the Smålandian village of Näsby[2] and under the early teens a farmer, but science, with its celebrities such as Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein made such an impression on him, as to motivate him to accomplish college studies by letter correspondence.

In the early 1960s he began his studies in Uppsala University, initially in mathematics, and thereafter theoretical physics, aesthetics, history of ideas and astronomy.

He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1993.