Walter Sydney Adams

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Walter Sydney Adams
150px
Walter Sydney Adams
Born (1876-12-20)December 20, 1876
Antioch, Turkey
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Nationality United States
Fields Astronomy
Institutions Mount Wilson Observatory
Alma mater Dartmouth College
Notable awards <templatestyles src="Plainlist/styles.css"/>

Walter Sydney Adams (December 20, 1876 – May 11, 1956) was an American astronomer.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Life and work

Adams was born in Antioch, Turkey to Lucien Harper Adams and Nancy Dorrance Francis Adams, missionary parents,[7] and was brought to the U.S. in 1885[1] He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1898, then continued his education in Chicago and in Germany. After returning to the U.S., he began a career in Astronomy that culminated when he became director of the Mount Wilson Observatory.

His primary interest was the study of stellar spectra. He worked on solar spectroscopy and co-discovered a relationship between the relative intensities of certain spectral lines and the absolute magnitude of a star. He was able to demonstrate that spectra could be used to determine whether a star was a giant or a dwarf. In 1915 he began a study of the companion of Sirius and found that despite a size only slightly larger than the Earth, the surface of the star was brighter per unit area than the Sun and it was about as massive.[8] Such a star later came to be known as a white dwarf. Along with Theodore Dunham, he discovered the strong presence of carbon dioxide in the infrared spectrum of Venus.

Adams died at the age of 79 in Pasadena, California.

Awards and Honors

Awards and honors

Named after him

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Walter Sydney AdamsBiographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
  3. MNRAS 117 (1957) 243
  4. Obs 76 (1956) 139
  5. PASP 68 (1956) 285
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. http://www.amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.Ad19-ead.xml#bioghist
  8. F. Wesemael, A comment on Adams' measurement of the gravitational redshift of Sirius B Royal Astronomical Society, Quarterly Journal (ISSN 0035-8738), 26, Sept. 1985, 273-278
  9. Awarding of RAS gold medal
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Bruce Medal page
  14. Awarding of Bruce Medal

Further reading