Master of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jan Hendrik Oort by Pieter C Van Der Kruit

Master of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jan Hendrik Oort by Pieter C Van Der Kruit

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 20^th 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.

Pieter C. van der Kruit is the Jacobus C. Kapteyn Honorary Professor of Astronomy at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in 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 numerous 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 six 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 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.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9783030555504
ISBN 10	303055550X
Title	Master of Galactic Astronomy: A Biography of Jan Hendrik Oort
Author	Pieter C Van Der Kruit
Series	Springer Biographies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Year published	2022-05-12
Number of pages	356
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.