Walter Baade
From Freepedia
Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24 1893 - June 25 1960) was a German astronomer who emigrated to the USA in 1931.
Contents |
Biography
Along with Fritz Zwicky, he proposed that supernovae could create neutron stars.
He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, which led him to define distinct "populations" for stars (Population I and Population II).
He discovered that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars, and identified the Crab Nebula as the remnant of the supernova of the year 1054, and identified the optical counterparts of various radio sources.
He discovered 10 asteroids, including notably 944 Hidalgo (long orbital period) and the Apollo-class asteroid 1566 Icarus (whose perihelion is closer than that of Mercury) and the Amor asteroid 1036 Ganymed.
Honors
Awards
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1954)
- Bruce Medal (1955)
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society (1958)
Named after him
- Asteroid 1501 Baade
- Baade crater on the Moon
- A vallis (valley) on the Moon
- One of the two Magellan telescopes
- Baade's Window, an area relatively free of dust near the Galactic Center in Sagittarius
Books
Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics, Donald E. Osterbrock, ISBN 0-691-04936-X
External links
Obituaries
- AN 285 (1960) 286 (one sentence, in German)
- JRASC 55 (1961) 113
- MitAG 14 (1961) 5
- Obs 80 (1960) 166 (one sentence)
- PASP 72 (1960) 434 (one paragraph)
- QJRAS 2 (1961) 118
Categories: 1893 births | 1960 deaths | German astronomers | Lists of asteroids | Asteroid discoverers
