Fred Whipple Whipple was born November 5 1906
Fred Whipple
-Whipple was born November 5, 1906 in Red Oak, Iowa -He majored in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles -Then he went on to get his Ph. D in Astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley -Whipple has said that his mathematics background helped him become interested in physics and eventually Astronomy
• Joined Harvard College Observatory in 1931 • Studied the paths of meteors • Concluded that they originated in the solar system instead of interstellar space • Discovered the periodic comet: 36 P/Whipple • Discovered the asteroid : 1252 Celestia
• During WW 11, Whipple invented a device to confuse enemy radar tracking allied plans • His device broke up lumps of tinfoil into fragments called chaff • The allied planes would then release the chaff to confuse enemy radar
• 1950 -1977 Whipple was a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University • Wrote a series of papers called the A comet Model in the Astrophysical Journal • The “icy conglomerate” hypothesis of comet composition, later called the “dirty snowball” hypothesis • His hypothesis was confirmed however research is still underway today about exactly how much ice is in a comet. The “icy dirtball” hypothesis
• Whipple also believed that there would be artificial satellites • He organized a group called Operation Moonwatch • They were the only ones prepared when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik • 1957, Whipple became director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Obsesrvatory • Invented the “meteor bumper” to protect spacecrafts
• Whiple died in 2004 • He was the oldest living American astronomer • Whipple was one of the most important astronomers of the 20 th century • His “icy conglomerate” papers are the most cited papers in the last 50 years in the Astrophysical Journal http: //www. universetoday. com
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