- Knut Lundmark
Knut Emil Lundmark (14 June 1889–23 April 1958) was a Swedish
astronomer , professor of astronomy and head of the observatory atLund University 1929-1955.Lundmark received his astronomical education at the observatory of
Uppsala University . His dissertation (1920) was titled: "The relations of the globular clusters and spiral nebulae to the stellar system". In the 1920s he worked at several observatories in the US, mainlyLick Observatory andMount Wilson Observatory .Knut Lundmark was one of the pioneers in the modern study of the galaxies and their distances. He was one of the first to suspect that the galaxies are remotestellar systems at vast distances and not nearby objects belonging to our own galaxy, the
Milky Way . In 1919 he measured the distance to M31 - theAndromeda Galaxy , to 650 000 light years (about a fourth of the present day value) using magnitudes ofnovae found in M31 and comparing them to nearby ones with known distances. Lundmark's work contributed to the later famousGreat Debate .Lundmark also made studies of the light distribution emitted from the galaxies, and discovered that the distribution could only properly be explained if the galaxies contained vast amounts of light-blocking dark clouds.
He was the leading writer of popular astronomy among the professional astronomers in Sweden from the 1930s and onwards. He also often appeared in the Swedish national radio with programs on popular astronomy and the history of science. He made generations of Swedes fascinated and interested in astronomy.
The crater Lundmark on the Moon was named after him. The
Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte Galaxy is named after Lundmark,Max Wolf andPhilibert Jacques Melotte .External links
* [http://www42.pair.com/infolund/bolaget/DAHAP/people/3.html] - photo: Knut Lundmark at Lund Observatory in 1937
* [http://www.astro.uu.se/history/] - history from Uppsala Observatory - [http://www.astro.uu.se/history/swehistory_1860-1940.html "Astronomy in Sweden 1860-1940"]
* [http://eee.uci.edu/clients/bjbecker/ExploringtheCosmos/lecture18.html] - the galactic redshift-distance relationship
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