- Dirk Reuyl
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Dirk Reuyl (1906 – 1972) was a Dutch American physicist and astronomer. He was the cousin of astronomer Peter van de Kamp.
Contents
Life
He was awarded his Ph.D from Utrecht University in Utrecht, Netherlands. He came to the United States a few years before his cousin Peter van de Kamp. He joined the staff at McCormick Observatory in 1929 and continued to work there until 1944. He originally worked on the parallax of stars, first publishing a list of 50 measurements in 1929 with fellow staff member Alexander N. Vyssotsky.[1] In 1941 he measured angular diameter of Mars using photographic plates.[2]
Claim of planets
Main article: 70 Ophiuchi - Claims of a planetary systemIn 1943 he claimed to have discovered (with Erik Holberg) a planetary companion of the star system 70 Ophiuchi and other stars. He caimed that this planetary object had 10 times the mass of the planet Jupiter and a 17 year orbital period.[3] This caused quite a sensation at the time. A critical analysis by Wulff Heintz later discredited these claims.[4]
Later life and death
In 1944 he left McCormick Observatory and became head of the Photographic Division at the Ballistic Research Laboratory of the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland.[5] He wrote a 1949 article for Sky and Telescope on guided missiles.[6] During the late 1940s and the 1950s he worked on optically tracking the launch and trajectory of captured V-2 rockets. In 1957 Reuyl began a project for the optical tracking of the first artificial Earth satellites for the International Geophysical Year. This project was in association with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and tracked the first satellites launched by the U.S and Soviet Union.[7] Reuyl remained associated with Aberdeen through the 1960s.[8] He died in 1972.
Honors and awards
Reuyl Crater, an impact crater on Mars, was named in his honor.
References
- ^ Reuyl, D.; Vyssotsky, A. (April 1929). "Trigonometric parallaxes of fifty stars". The Astronomical Journal 39 (920): 82–83. Bibcode 1929AJ.....39...82R. doi:10.1086/104893.
- ^ Reuyl, Dirk (December 1941). "Photographic determination of the diameter of Mars". The Astronomical Journal 49 (1136): 125–129. Bibcode 1941AJ.....49..125R. doi:10.1086/105664.
- ^ Reuyl, Dirk; Holmberg, Erik (January 1943). "On the Existence of a Third Component in the System 70 Ophiuchi". The Astrophysical Journal 97: 41–46. Bibcode 1943ApJ....97...41R. doi:10.1086/144489.
- ^ Heintz, W. D. (June 1988). "The binary star 70 Ophiuchi revisited". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Journal (ISSN 0035-872X) 82: 140–145. Bibcode 1988JRASC..82..140H.
- ^ "Reports of observatories". Astronomical Journal 51: 23. Bibcode 1944AJ.....51...23.. doi:10.1086/105789. http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/AJ.../0051//0000023.000.html.
- ^ Reuyl, Dirk (October 1949). "Optical Instrumentation for Guided Missiles". Sky and Telescope 8: 299. Bibcode 1949S&T.....8..299R.
- ^ Report on the U.S. Program for the International Geophysical Year, July 1, 1957 - December 31, 1958. National Academy of Sciences. 1965-11. p. 586. http://books.google.com/?id=v04rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA586&lpg=PA586&dq=%22Dirk+Reuyl%E2%80%8E%22. Retrieved 2009-06-06.
- ^ Reuyl, D., Menne, D., Poetzschke, H. (1964-08). THE BRL BALLISTIC CAMERA SYSTEM,. BALLISTIC RESEARCH LABS ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND MD. http://www.dtic.mil/srch/doc?collection=t3&id=AD0453090.
Categories:- 1906 births
- 1972 deaths
- American physicists
- American astronomers
- 20th-century astronomers
- Dutch astronomers
- Dutch physicists
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