Arne Slettebak (August 8, 1925 – May 20, 1999) was a naturalized American astronomer. His principal research interests were in Be stars and stellar rotation, and he published over 90 papers, abstracts and articles over his career. He served as chair of the astronomy department at the Ohio State University from 1962 to 1987. The asteroid 9001 Slettebak, discovered in 1981, was named in his honour.
Arne Slettebak | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 8, 1925 |
| Died | May 20, 1999 (aged 73) |
| Citizenship |
|
| Alma mater | University of Chicago (BS, PhD) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | |
| Doctoral advisor | William Wilson Morgan |
Early life and education edit
Arne Slettebak was born in the Free City of Danzig (in modern day Gdansk, Poland) on August 8, 1925 to Norwegian parents. He emigrated to the United States in 1927, gaining citizenship in 1932.[1]
He studied at the University of Chicago, graduating with a BS degree in physics in 1945 before receiving a PhD in astronomy in 1949.[2] His dissertation, which he completed under the guidance of William Wilson Morgan, was concerned with the rotational velocities of O-type and B-type stars.
Career edit
After receiving his PhD, Slettebak joined the Ohio State University as an instructor the same year before becoming full professor in 1959 when he assumed the role of director of the Perkins Observatory from Geoffrey Keller, a position he would hold until 1978.[3][4] The same year, he also took over directorship of the McMillin Observatory from Allen Hynek.[4][5]
Slettebak was instrumental in the re-establishment of a separate astronomy department in November 1962, of which he became chair, holding this position for 25 years until 1987.[2][4] In 1964, he supervised the department's move from the McMillin Observatory, which had been deemed too small, to its current location atop the Smith Physics Laboratory.[5] He also helped forge an agreement between the Ohio State University, Ohio Wesleyan University and Lowell Observatory to move the 69-inch Perkins telescope from Perkins Observatory to Lowell in Flagstaff, Arizona, where it was upgraded and would serve as the department's primary research instrument until 1998.[1]
Slettebak also held Fulbright fellowships in Hamburg and Vienna as well as visiting professorships in Vienna and Strasbourg.[1]
He retired from the department in 1994, becoming Professor Emeritus.[1] In 2015, the Ohio State University's planetarium was renamed the Arne Slettebak Planetarium in honour of his legacy.[3]
Research edit
One of Slettebak's main research interests was the rotation of stars.[3] This topic had been in its 'golden age' in the 1930s thanks to observational evidence from Otto Struve and Grigory Shajn but was abandoned for nearly 15 years after Pol Swings established that axial rotation in close binaries with short periods is approximately or perfectly synchronized with the orbital motion.[6][7] It was only after the Second World War that interest in the field was renewed, in particular as a result of Slettebak, who published a series of papers on the topic starting in 1949.[8] He assembled the main results pertaining to the field in the period between 1930 and 1970, where he found that the distribution of rotational velocities along the main sequence increases from low values in F-type stars to a maximum in B-type stars.[9]
His other principal research interest was in Be stars, where he organised multiple commissions at the International Astronomical Union and was active in other conferences.[1][10]
Personal life edit
Slettebak died on May 20, 1999 at the age of 73 after a brief illness.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f Pogge, Richard; Newsom, Gordon (December 1, 2000). "Arne Slettebak (1925–1999)". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 32 (4): 1686–1687. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ a b "Alumni: Arne E. Slettebak, 1949". Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
- ^ a b c "OSU Planetarium to be named for Professor Arne Slettebak". Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University. April 15, 2015. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ a b c Jossem, E. Leonard (November 1969). "History of the Department of Physics 1873 – 1970" (PDF). Department of Physics, The Ohio State University. pp. 69–70. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ a b Wennings, Carl J. (September 25, 2008). "EMERSON McMILLIN and his ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY". Department of Physics, Illinois State University. Archived from the original on August 31, 2009. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ Hearnshaw 1990, pp. 199–200.
- ^ Tassoul 2000, pp. 3–4.
- ^ Tassoul 2000, p. 4.
- ^ Tassoul 2000, p. 12.
- ^ "Arne Slettebak". International Astronomical Union. Retrieved December 31, 2023.
Sources edit
- Hearnshaw, John B. (1990). The Analysis of Starlight: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Astronomical Spectroscopy (Revised paperback ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52-139916-6.
- Tassoul, Jean-Louis (2000). Stellar Rotation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-13-942832-3.