walter baade

Asteroids discovered: 10>

Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24 1893 - June 25 1960) was a German astronomer who emigrated to the USA in 1931.

Biography

Along with Fritz Zwicky, he proposed that supernovae could create neutron stars. He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, which led him to define distinct "populations" for stars (Population I and Population II). He discovered that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars, and identified the Crab Nebula as the remnant of the supernova of the year 1054, and identified the optical counterparts of various radio sources. He discovered 10 asteroids, including notably 944 Hidalgo (long orbital period) and the Apollo-class asteroid 1566 Icarus (whose perihelion is closer than that of Mercury) and the Amor asteroid 1036 Ganymed. He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1954. He also won the Bruce Medal in 1955, and the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society in 1958. The asteroid 1501 Baade is named after him, as is Baade crater, a vallis (valley) on the Moon and one of the two Magellan telescopes.

Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics, Donald E. Osterbrock, ISBN 0-691-04936-X

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