Vesto Slipher

From Freepedia

Vesto Melvin Slipher (November 11, 1875 – November 8, 1969) was an American astronomer. His brother Earl C. Slipher was also an astronomer.

Slipher was born in Mulberry, Indiana, and completed his education at Indiana University. He spent his entire career at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he was director from 1916 to 1952. He used spectroscopy to investigate the rotation periods of planets, the composition of planetary atmospheres. In 1912 ff., he was the first to observe the radial velocities of galaxies by virtue of the shift of spectral lines, so he was the discoverer of galactic redshifts.

He died in Flagstaff, Arizona and is buried there in Citizens Cemetery.

Awards and honors

• Henry Draper Medal (1932)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1933)
• Bruce Medal (1935)
• Slipher crater on the Moon is named for Earl and Vesto Slipher, as is a crater on Mars and the asteroid 1766 Slipher, discovered September 7, 1962, by the Indiana Asteroid Program.