Kent Ford

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William Kent Ford Jr. (born April 8, 1931 in Clifton Forge , Virginia ) is an American astronomer. He made significant contributions to the discovery of dark matter with Vera Rubin .

Ford studied at Washington and Lee University with a bachelor's degree in 1953 and at the University of Virginia with a master's degree in physics in 1955 and a doctorate in 1957. He was then until 1990 at the Carnegie Institution (Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Washington, DC ) as an astronomer . In 1973/74 he was a visiting resident scientist at the Kitt Peak National Observatory . From 1981 he was Adjunct Staff Member at the Mount Wilson Observatory and Las Campanas Observatory .

He dealt with astronomical instruments and electronic image intensification and observation of galaxies ( rotation , redshift ). In the mid-1960s, he had developed a spectroscope that was equipped with the most modern electronic image intensification at the time and was thus able to observe regions of galaxies. He and Vera Rubin used it to study the rotational speed of regions with ionized hydrogen ( H-II regions ) depending on the distance from the center in the Andromeda galaxy . To their surprise, however, they could not find any change in the speed of rotation (see rotation curve ). The same thing happened with other galaxies. Finally, Rubin interpreted this as the result of a halo of dark matter in the galaxies. The observations were made at various observatories (the spectrograph was always carried along), u. a. at the Kitt Peak National Observatory.

In 1985 he received the James Craig Watson Medal from the National Academy of Sciences for his work in the field of image intensification and galaxy dynamics, which contributed significantly to the characterization of dark matter in galaxies (laudation).

Fonts

On dark matter from observations of the distribution of the rotational speed of galaxies:

  • with Vera Rubin: Rotation of the Andromeda Nebula from a Spectroscopic Survey of Emission Regions, Astrophysical Journal, Volume 159, 1970, p. 379 (first observations on Andromeda)
  • with Vera Rubin, N. Thonnard: Rotational Properties of 21 Sc Galaxies with a Large Range of Luminosities and Radii from NGC 4605 (R = 4kpc) to UGC 2885 (R = 122kpc), Astrophys. J., Volume 238, 1980, p. 471 (data from other spiral galaxies)
  • with D. Burstein, Vera Rubin, N. Thonnard: Rotation Velocities of 16 Sa Galaxies and a Comparison of Sa, Sb, and Sc Rotation Properties, Astrophysical Journal, Volume 289, 1985, p. 81 (data from around 60 galaxies)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth and career data according to American Men and Women of Science , Thomson Gale 2004
  2. ↑ Sarah Scoles: How Vera Rubin confirmed Dark Matter , Astronomy Magazine, October 4, 2016 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Ford, Kent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ford, William Kent
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Clifton Forge, Virginia