| Rudolph Minkowski | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1895-05-28)May 28, 1895 Strasbourg, German Empire |
| Died | January 4, 1976(1976-01-04) (aged 80) Berkeley, California |
| Nationality | German |
| Known for | supernovae |
| Awards | Bruce Medal in 1961 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Palomar Observatory |
Rudolph Minkowski (born Rudolf Leo Bernhard Minkowski /mɪŋˈkɔːfski, -ˈkɒf-/; German: [mɪŋˈkɔfski]; May 28, 1895 – January 4, 1976) was a German-American astronomer.
Biography
| 1620 Geographos | September 14, 1951 |
Minkowski was the son of Marie Johanna Siegel and physiologist Oskar Minkowski. His uncle was Hermann Minkowski, a mathematician and one of Einstein's teachers in Zürich. Rudolph studied supernovae and, together with Walter Baade, divided them into two classes (Type I and Type II) based on their spectral characteristics. He and Baade also found optical counterparts to various radio sources.
He headed the National Geographic Society – Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, a photographic atlas of the entire northern sky (and south to declination -22°) down to an apparent magnitude of 22.
Together with Albert George Wilson, he co-discovered the near-Earth Apollo asteroid 1620 Geographos in 1951, and he also discovered Planetary Nebula M2-9. He additionally discovered a correlation between the luminosity of early-type galaxies and their velocity dispersion, which was later quantified by Faber and Jackson. He won the Bruce Medal in 1961. The lunar crater Minkowski is named after him and his uncle. In the 1940's he created a catalog of nearly 200 planetary nebulae, including Minkowski 2-9, and a dwarf galaxy near NGC 541, known as Minkowski's object, is named after him.
Bibliography
- Minkowski, R (1960), "International Cooperative Efforts Directed Toward Optical Identification of Radio Sources", Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., vol. 46, no. 1 (published Jan 1960), pp. 13–9, Bibcode:1960PNAS...46...13M, doi:10.1073/pnas.46.1.13, PMC 284999, PMID 16590587
See also
Nebulae discovered by Minkowski:
References
- "Minkowski". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Kuhi, Leonard V. (March 1976). "Rudoph L. Minkowski". Physics Today. 29 (3): 78–80. doi:10.1063/1.3023389.
- "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
- Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present: I–M
- The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography
- http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/minkowski-rudolph.pdf
- Schmadel, Lutz D. (2007). "(1620) Geographos". Dictionary of Minor Planet Names – (1620) Geographos. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 128. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-29925-7_1621. ISBN 978-3-540-00238-3.
- Minkowski, R. (1962), Internal Dispersion of Velocities in Other Galaxies
- Minkowski, R. (1946). "New Emission Nebulae". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 58 (344): 305. Bibcode:1946PASP...58..305M. doi:10.1086/125855.
- Minkowski, R. (1958). "The Problem of the Identification of Extragalactic Radio Sources". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 70 (413): 143. Bibcode:1958PASP...70..143M. doi:10.1086/127200. S2CID 120628483.
External links
- Short Biography Archived 2019-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
- Rudolph Minkowski — Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
