- Gerard Kuiper
Infobox Scientist
name = PAGENAME
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caption = PAGENAME c. 1963.
birth_date =December 7 1905
birth_place =Harenkarspel
death_date =December 23 1973
death_place =Mexico City
residence = |citizenship = American
nationality = Dutch
ethnicity =
field = astronomer
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known_for =Kuiper belt
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religion = |footnotes = |Gerard Peter Kuiper (IPA| [ˈkaɪpɚ] ), born Gerrit Pieter Kuiper (IPA| [kœypər] ) (
December 7 1905 ,Harenkarspel (Tuitjenhorn ),Netherlands –December 23 1973 ,Mexico City ) was a Dutch American astronomer who became anaturalized citizen of the United States and lived most of his life in his new homeland.Kuiper, the son of a tailor in the village of
Tuitjenhorn inNorth Holland , had an early interest in astronomy. He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, allowing him to see magnitude 7.5 stars with the naked eye, about four times fainter than visible to normal eyes. He went to study atLeiden University , where at the time a very large number of astronomers had congegrated. He befriended fellow studentsBart Bok andPieter Oosterhoff and was taught byEjnar Hertzsprung ,Antonie Pannekoek ,Willem de Sitter , Jan Woltjer,Jan Oort and the physicistPaul Ehrenfest . Kuiper finished his doctoral thesis onbinary star s with Hertzsprung in 1933, after which he immediately traveled toCalifornia to become a fellow underRobert Grant Aitken at theLick Observatory . In 1935 he left to work at theHarvard College Observatory where he met Sarah Parker Fuller, whom he married onJune 20 ,1936 . Although he had planned to move toJava to work at theBosscha Observatory , he took a position at theYerkes Observatory of theUniversity of Chicago and became an American citizen in 1937.Kuiper discovered two moons of
planet s in thesolar system , namely Uranus's moon Miranda and Neptune's moon Nereid. In addition, he discoveredcarbon dioxide in the atmosphere ofMars and the existence of amethane -laced atmosphere above Saturn's moon Titan in 1944. Kuiper also pioneered airborne infrared observing using aConvair 990 aircraft in the 1960s.Kuiper spent most of his career at the
University of Chicago , but moved toTucson ,Arizona in 1960 to found theLunar and Planetary Laboratory at theUniversity of Arizona . Kuiper was the laboratory's director until his death in 1973 while on vacation with his wife in Mexico.In 1959, Kuiper won the
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of theAmerican Astronomical Society .In the 1960s, Kuiper helped identify
landing sites on themoon for theApollo program .Besides the
Kuiper belt ,Asteroid 1776 Kuiper , the Kuiper crater on theMoon , craters on Mars and Mercury, and the now-decommissionedKuiper Airborne Observatory were named after him. In addition, he discovered several binary stars which received "Kuiper numbers" to identify them, such as KUI 79.The
Kuiper Prize , named in his honor, is the most distinguished award given by theAmerican Astronomical Society Division of Planetary Sciences, an international society of professional planetary scientists. The prize recognizes outstanding contributors toplanetary science , and is awarded annually to scientists whose achievements have most advanced our understanding of planetary systems. Winners of this distinguished award includeCarl Sagan ,James Van Allen , andEugene Shoemaker .External links
* [http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/lfs/kuiper-bio.html Gerard Peter Kuiper: NASA KAO's Namesake]
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