Astronomers

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Astronomers

Part One

Brief Descriptions of the Following Astronomers:

Walter Baade : Baade was a German-born American, whose work gave new estimates for the age and size
of the universe. During the wartime, blackouts aided his observatons and allowed him to indentify and
classify stars in a new and useful way, and led him to increase and improve Hubble's values for the size and
age of the universe (to the great relief of geologists.) He also worked on supernovae and radiostars.

Milton Humason : Humason was a colleague of Edwin Hubble's at Mt. Wilson and Palomar Mtn. who was
instrumental in measuring faint galaxy spectra providing evidence for the expansion of the universe.

Jan Oort : In 1927, this Dutch astronomer proved by observation (in the Leiden observatory) that our
galaxy is rotating, and calculated the sirance of the sun from the centre of the galaxy and the period of its
orbit. In 1950 he sugested the exsistence of a sphere of incipent cometary material surrounding the solar
system, which is now called the 'Oort cloud.' He proposed that comets detached themsleves from this 'Oort-
cloud' and went into orbit around the sun. From 1940 onwards he carried out notable work in radio
astronomy.

Harlow Shapley : Shapley deduced that the Sun lies near the central plane of the Galaxy some 30,000 light-
years away from the centre.
    In 1911 Shapley, working with results given by Henry N. Russell, began finding the dimensions of
stars in a number of bin...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 01-09-04 2:09pm
Category: Social Issues
Words: 1877
Pages: 7.51