Heinrich Kreutz (astronomer)
Heinrich Carl Friedrich Kreutz (born September 28, 1854 in Siegen , † July 3, 1907 in Kiel ) was a German astronomer . The Kreutz group was named after him, a group of comets that pass particularly close to the sun .
origin
His parents were the superintendent of Siegen Karl Kreutz (1812-1894) and his wife Carolina Schleifenbaum (* 1823, † around 1900), the daughter of an iron manufacturer. The industrialist and MP Adolf Kreutz (1822–1895) was his uncle.
Life
After his school days in Siegen, Kreutz studied astronomy at the University of Bonn under Professors Adalbert Krüger and Eduard Schönfeld . In 1880 he received his doctorate and then went to Vienna for several months , where he worked under Theodor Oppolzer .
In 1882 he took a job as a computer at the Astronomical Computing Institute in Berlin . In 1883 he moved to the University of Kiel ; his former Professor Krüger had meanwhile become director of the observatory there . Kreutz initially worked again as a computer and from 1889 as an observer at the observatory. In 1891 he was appointed professor of astronomy at Kiel University. During this time he married Kruger’s daughter.
Krüger died in 1896 and Kreutz took over his job as editor of Astronomische Nachrichten , one of the leading journals for astronomy at the time . Since 1891 he was a member of the Leopoldina Academy of Sciences .
Kreutz examined the orbits of comets, the perihelion of which took place in close proximity to the Sun, and found that these must be fragments of a larger comet. Some of the Kreutz comets are among the brightest comets ever observed, such as Comet Ikeya-Seki , which appeared in 1965 .
In 1907 Kreutz died in Kiel after a long illness at the age of 52.
In 2004 the asteroid (3635) Kreutz was named after him.
family
He married Else Krueger (1861–1940), the daughter of the astronomer Adalbert Krueger . The couple had two sons and three daughters.
literature
- Investigations into the system of comets 1843I, 1880I and 1882II. published 1901
- Obituary - 1907, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v. 19, p.249 ( online )
- Felix Schmeidler : Kreutz, Heinrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 24 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Biography on seds.org (English)
- Publications by H. Kreutz in the Astrophysics Data System
- H. Seeliger: notification of the death of H. Kreutz. Astronomische Nachrichten, Vol. 175 (1907), p. 241
Remarks
- ↑ Date of birth September 28, 1854 according to the NDB, seds.org names September 8, 1854.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kreutz, Heinrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kreutz, Heinrich Carl Friedrich (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 8, 1854 or September 28, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wins |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 3, 1907 |
| Place of death | Kiel |