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This accessible and entertaining biography chronicles the life and triumphs of astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort, who helped lay the foundations of modern astronomy in the 20th century. The book puts into context some of Oort's most significant achievements, including his discovery that the Milky Way rotates, as well as his famous hypothesis that our Solar System is surrounded by a reservoir of comets - now simply known as the Oort Cloud.
Written by Oort's former student, this fascinating story also delves into Oort's pivotal role in the foundation of major astronomical facilities, including radio telescopes in the Netherlands and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which now operates the most successful astronomical observatories in the world.
The book draws extensively on new archival research through the Oort Archives, along with personal reminiscences by Oort's son and astronomer-grandson, to paint a more detailed picture of Oort's life not just as an astronomer, but also as a husband, father, and citizen. The strong public interest in comets triggered by the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the recently discovered interstellar comet in the Solar System make this book particularly timely.This accessible and entertaining biography chronicles the life and triumphs of astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort, who helped lay the foundations of modern astronomy in the 20th century. The book puts into context some of Oort's most significant achievements, including his discovery that the Milky Way rotates, as well as his famous hypothesis that our Solar System is surrounded by a reservoir of comets - now simply known as the Oort Cloud.
Written by Oort's former student, this fascinating story also delves into Oort's pivotal role in the foundation of major astronomical facilities, including radio telescopes in the Netherlands and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which now operates the most successful astronomical observatories in the world.
The book draws extensively on new archival research through the Oort Archives, along with personal reminiscences by Oort's son and astronomer-grandson, to paint a more detailed picture of Oort's life not just as an astronomer, but also as a husband, father, and citizen. The strong public interest in comets triggered by the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the recently discovered interstellar comet in the Solar System make this book particularly timely.Youth in Oegstgeest and Leiden.- Kapateyn and Groningen.- Via Yale to Leiden.- Rotation and Dynamics of the Galaxy.- The Structure of our and Other Galaxies.- The Watershed: World War Ii.- Opening New Avenues.- Fron Kootwijk to Dwingeloo.- Westerbork Syntjesis Radio Telescope and Retirement.- The Last Horizon.
Pieter C. van der Kruit is emeritus Jacobus C. Kapteyn
Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the Kapteyn
Astronomical Institute of the University of Groningen, the
Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in astronomy from Leiden
University in 1971 under Jan Hendrik Oort. He held a prestigious
Carnegie postdoctoral Fellowship at the Mount Wilson and
Palomar Observatories in Pasadena, California, before moving
to the University of Groningen in 1975. He has held visiting
positions at various institutions, including the Mount Stromlo
Observatory in Canberra, Australia; the Institute of
Astronomy in Cambridge, UK; the Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore, USA; the European Southern Observatory in
Santiago, Chile, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in
Tenerife, Spain, and the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena,
California. His research concerns structure and dynamics of
disks in galaxies. He has published over 160 papers, more than
half as lead or sole author, contributed substantially to over
20 more, and authored or edited eight books.
In Groningen he taught introductory astronomy and advanced level
courses on structure and dynamics of galaxies for many years, the
latter also at a Saas-Fee winter school in Switzerland and in
university curricula in Porto, Portugal, in Santiago, Chile and in
Beijing, China. He is a former director of the Kapteyn Astronomical
Institute and has been a member and often chairman of numerous
national and international boards and committees, notably President
of Council of the European Southern Observatory and chairman of the
Board for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array ALMA. In 2006 he
received a Royal Decoration as Knight in the Order of the Dutch
Lion.
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