John Gatenby Bolton
John Gatenby Bolton (born June 5, 1922 in Sheffield , † July 6, 1993 ) was a British - Australian astronomer and pioneer of radio astronomy . He succeeded in identifying cosmic radio sources with known objects for the first time.
Bolton attended Trinity College in Cambridge from 1940 to 1942. After graduating, he served in the British Navy during World War II and ended up in Australia. After the war he stayed there and began working for the CSIRO's Department of Radiophysics in September 1946 . He was one of the pioneers of the then new radio astronomy, his team discovered some of the first radio sources in the sky using a former radar station on the Australian coast, some of which were identified with other galaxies , for example Centaurus A (NGC5128) and Virgo A (M87) .
From 1955 he held a position at the California Institute of Technology where he built up the Owens Valley Radio Observatory as director from 1956 . In 1961 he returned to Australia to oversee the construction of the Parkes Observatory , of which he became the first director. With the radio telescope there, many distant radio galaxies and quasars were discovered, and it was also used to broadcast the first moon landing on television.
Honors
- first Karl G. Jansky Lecture 1966
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship 1968
- Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1972
- Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society 1977
- Member of the National Academy of Sciences 1980
- Bruce Medal 1988
- Naming of the asteroid (12140) Johnbolton after him in 2007
Web links
- Publications by JG Bolton in the Astrophysics Data System
- Obituaries for JG Bolton in the Astrophysics Data System
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bolton, John Gatenby |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British-Australian astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sheffield |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 6, 1993 |