Horace W. Babcock
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| Horace W. Babcock | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 13, 1912 |
| Died | August 29, 2003 (aged 90) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | astronomy |
| Known for | adaptive optics Babcock Model |
| Notable awards | Henry Draper Medal (1957) |
Horace Welcome Babcock (September 13, 1912 – August 29, 2003) was an American astronomer. He was the son of Harold D. Babcock.
He invented and built a number of astronomical instruments, and in 1953 was the first to propose the idea of adaptive optics.[1] He specialized in spectroscopy and the study of magnetic fields of stars. He proposed the Babcock Model, a theory for the magnetism of sunspots.
During World War II, he was engaged in radiation work at MIT and Caltech. After the war he began a productive collaboration with his father. His undergraduate studies was at Caltech and his doctorate from University of California, Berkeley.[2]
Babcock's doctoral thesis contained one of the earliest indications of dark matter. He reported measurements of the rotation curve for Andromeda which suggested that the mass-to-luminosity ratio increases radially.[3] He, however, attributed it to either absorption of light within the galaxy or modified dynamics in the outer portions of the spiral and not to any form of missing matter.
Honors
Awards
- Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1957)[4]
- Eddington Medal (1958)
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1959)[5]
- Bruce Medal (1969)[6]
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1970)[7]
- George Ellery Hale Prize of the American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division (1992)
Named after him
- Asteroid 3167 Babcock (jointly with his father)
- Babcock crater on the Moon is named only for his father
References
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12500626
- ^ Hockey, Thomas (2009). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer Publishing. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
- ^ Babcock, H, 1939, “The rotation of the Andromeda Nebula”, Lick Observatory bulletin ; no. 498
- ^ "Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
- ^ "Past Winners of the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
- ^ "Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
External links
- H.W. Babcock, "The Possibility of Compensating Astronomical Seeing", PASP 65 (1953) 229
- Oral History interview transcript with Horace Babcock 25 July 1977, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
Obituaries
PASP 116 (2004) 290(not available online yet, see [1])- Preston, George W. (2004). "Obituary: Horace Welcome Babcock (1912–2003)". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 116 (817): 290–294. Bibcode:2004PASP..116..290P. doi:10.1086/382664.
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