Albrecht Unsöld

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albrecht Otto Johannes Unsöld (born April 20, 1905 in Bolheim (Württemberg) , † September 23, 1995 ) was a German astrophysicist who had a formative influence on the physics of stellar atmospheres .

life and work

Unsöld was the son of a pastor and studied physics in Tübingen and Munich , where Arnold Sommerfeld taught theoretical physics and especially quantum mechanics . There he completed his dissertation Contributions to the Quantum Mechanics of Atoms in 1927 . During his studies he became a member of AMV Stochdorphia Tübingen . After stays in Potsdam , Munich, Pasadena and Hamburg , he became professor and director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kiel University in 1932 . 1958/59 he was its rector . In 1973 he retired .

Unsöld began early on to apply quantum physical methods to the study of stellar atmospheres. He gained the first detailed analyzes of star atmospheres and their element abundances and described the formation and broadening of lines in the spectra of the sun and other stars. Unsöld's analysis of the spectrum of the B0 star Tau Scorpii , taken during a visit to the Yerkes and McDonald Observatories in 1939 , provided the first detailed analysis of a star other than the Sun. Unsöld and his school in Kiel developed the essential basics for determining the physical conditions in stellar atmospheres.

In addition to his influential work on the physics of stellar atmospheres and the standard textbook of astronomy, The New Cosmos , he published the magazine for astrophysics until it merged with other European magazines into Astronomy and Astrophysics .

From 1947 to 1949 Unsöld was chairman of the Astronomical Society . In 1951 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian and in 1955 of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1962 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . Since 1946 he was a member of the Braunschweig Scientific Society .

In the early 1980s, there was a controversy over an article by Unsöld in the Physikalische Blätter (November 1980), which was critical of Albert Einstein. Unsöld saw, among other things, Einstein's role in the development of the atomic bomb as critical and in the Einstein year 1979 it would have been passed over in his opinion. This led to personnel consequences and upheavals in this journal of the German Physical Society.

Awards

Works (selection)

  • Physics of the stellar atmospheres, with special attention to the sun. Springer, Berlin 1938.
  • The new cosmos. Springer, Berlin 1967 numerous new editions and adaptations, most recently in 2015 by Bodo Baschek.
  • Stars and people. Articles and lectures , Berlin 1972.
  • Evolution of cosmic, biological and spiritual structures. Scientific publishing company, Stuttgart 1981.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association of Alter SVer (VASV): Address book and Vademecum. Ludwigshafen am Rhein 1959, p. 125.
  2. ↑ Univ. Kiel
  3. ^ Albrecht Unsöld Obituary by Arnulf Schlueter in the 1996 yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (PDF file).
  4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 244.
  5. ↑ Member entry of Albrecht Unsöld (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 18, 2016.
  6. ↑ Article (put up for discussion :) Albert Einstein - One year later , in: Physikalische Blätter 36 (1980), No. 11, page 337ff. see https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/phbl.19800361105 (full text accessible)
  7. ^ Günter Haaf : Censorship in the Association Gazette, Is criticism of Einstein a sacrilege? , Die Zeit, March 26, 1982
  8. ↑ Newsletter of the German Science and Technology, organ of the Reich Research Council (Hrsg.): Research and progress . Staff news. Awards. tape 19, 23/24 , 1943, pp. 252 .
  9. ↑ see page of the Leopoldina with the winners of the Cothenius Medal
  10. ↑ Minor Planet Circ. 12969
personal data
SURNAME Unsold, Albrecht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unsöld, Albrecht Otto Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German astronomer and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH April 20, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Bolheim
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1995