- Walter Baade
Infobox Scientist
name = Walter Baade
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caption = Walter Baade
birth_date =March 24 1893
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death_date =June 25 1960
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nationality = German
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field =Astronomy
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Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24 1893 –June 25 1960 ) was a Germanastronomer who emigrated to theUSA in 1931.Biography
Along with
Fritz Zwicky , he proposed thatsupernova e could createneutron star s.He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during
World War II , which reducedlight pollution atMount Wilson Observatory , to resolve stars in the center of theAndromeda 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, together withFritz Zwicky identifiedsupernova e as a new category of astronomical objects (W. Baade, F. Zwicky, 1934, " [http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1076395&blobtype=pdf On Super-Novae] ". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 254-259.) and proposed the existence ofneutron star s. He also identified the optical counterparts of various radio sources.He discovered 10
asteroid s, including notably944 Hidalgo (long orbital period) and the Apollo-class asteroid1566 Icarus (whose perihelion is closer than that of Mercury) and theAmor asteroid 1036 Ganymed .Honors
Awards
*Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1954)
*Bruce Medal (1955)
*Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of theAmerican Astronomical Society (1958)Named after him
*Asteroid 1501 Baade
*Baade crater on theMoon
*Vallis Baade , avallis (valley) on the Moon
*One of the two Magellantelescope s
*Baade's Window , an area relatively free of dust near theGalactic Center in Sagittarius
*The asteroid966 Muschi Further reading
*
* cite encyclopedia
last =Dieke
first = Sally H.
title = Baade, Wilhelm Heinrich Walter
encyclopedia =Dictionary of Scientific Biography
volume = 1
pages = 352-354
publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons
location = New York
date = 1970
isbn = 0684101149External links
* [http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Baade/index.html Bruce Medal page]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASP./0067//0000057.000.html Awarding of Bruce Medal]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MNRAS/0114//0000370.000.html Awarding of RAS gold medal]Obituaries
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/AN.../0285//0000286.000.html AN 285 (1960) 286] (one sentence, in German)
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/JRASC/0055//0000113.000.html JRASC 55 (1961) 113]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/MitAG/0014//0000005.000.html MitAG 14 (1961) 5]
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/Obs../0080//0000166.000.html Obs 80 (1960) 166] (one sentence)
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/PASP./0072//0000434.000.html PASP 72 (1960) 434] (one paragraph)
* [http://adsabs.harvard.edu//full/seri/QJRAS/0002//0000118.000.html QJRAS 2 (1961) 118]
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