Jan Hendrik Oort
Jan Hendrik Oort (born April 28, 1900 in Franeker , † November 5, 1992 in Leiden ) was a Dutch astronomer .
Life
Oort studied at the University of Groningen . There he was a student of Jacobus C. Kapteyn . From 1924 he worked at the Leiden Observatory . From 1945 to 1970 he was a professor at the University of Leiden . At the same time he was also director of the Leiden observatory .
In 1927, Oort and his colleagues confirmed Bertil Lindblad's hypothesis about the rotation of our galaxy ( Milky Way ), which Immanuel Kant had first proposed in 1755, using Oort's rotation formulas . Oort located the Milky Way center 30,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius ( Sagittarius ). He showed that the Milky Way has a mass of 100 billion solar masses .
In the 1950s, Oort postulated an area on the edge of the solar system known as the Oort cloud , from which the comets originate. Oort's theories on this have not yet been confirmed, but are widely accepted.
Oort showed the polarization of the radiation from the Crab Nebula and recognized it as synchrotron radiation .
From 1958 to 1961 Oort was President of the International Astronomical Union .
Memberships
In 1946 Oort was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1949 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh , 1953 to the National Academy of Sciences and 1957 to the American Philosophical Society . In 1973 Oort was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1955 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and was accepted into the Académie des Sciences in Paris.
Honors
- 1942 Bruce Medal
- 1946 Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society
- 1947 Jules Janssen Prize
- 1951 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
- 1972 Karl Schwarzschild Medal of the Astronomical Society
- 1973 honorary member of the Leopoldina
- 1984 Balzan Prize for Astrophysics
- 1987 Kyoto Prize
- The asteroid (1691) Oort is named after Oort .
- In honor of Oort, the fountain "De Oortwolk" by Jean-Michel Othoniel was erected in front of the Martini church in 2018 as part of the cultural capital Leeuwarden / Friesland (LF2018) in Franeker .
literature
- Pieter C. van der Kruit: Jan Hendrik Oort. Master of the Galactic System . Springer Nature, 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-17800-0
- JK Katgert-Merkelijn: The letters and papers of Jan Hendrik Oort, as archived in the University Library, Leiden . Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997. ISBN 0-7923-4542-8
Web links
- Publications by JH Oort in the Astrophysics Data System
- Obituaries for JH Oort in the Astrophysics Data System
- Bruce Medalist: Jan Hendrik Oort (Engl.)
- Obituary New York Times, November 12, 1992
- JAN OORT - ASTRONOMER, Exhibition University of Leiden 2000
Individual evidence
- ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter O. (PDF; 289 kB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 17, 2018 .
- ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed March 26, 2020 .
- ↑ Member History: Jan H. Oort. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 2, 2018 .
- ↑ 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. 182.
- ^ List of members since 1666: Letter O. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 29, 2020 (French).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Oort, Jan Hendrik |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 28, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Franeker |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th November 1992 |
| Place of death | Leiden (city) |