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Rudolph Minkowski

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Rudolph Minkowski
Born(1895-05-28)May 28, 1895
Strasbourg, German Empire
DiedJanuary 4, 1976(1976-01-04) (aged 80)
Berkeley, California
NationalityGerman
Known forsupernovae
AwardsBruce Medal in 1961
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsPalomar Observatory

Rudolph Minkowski (born Rudolf Leo Bernhard Minkowski /mɪŋˈkɔːfski, -ˈkɒf-/;[1] German: [mɪŋˈkɔfski]; May 28, 1895 – January 4, 1976) was a German-American astronomer.[2]

Biography

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Asteroids discovered: 1 [3]
1620 Geographos September 14, 1951

Minkowski was the son of Marie Johanna Siegel and physiologist Oskar Minkowski.[4][5] 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.[6] 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.[2]

Together with Albert George Wilson, he co-discovered the near-Earth Apollo asteroid 1620 Geographos in 1951,[7] and he also discovered Planetary Nebula M2-9. He additionally discovered a correlation between the luminosity of early-type galaxies and their velocity dispersion,[8] which was later quantified by Faber and Jackson. He won the Bruce Medal in 1961.[2] 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,[9] and a dwarf galaxy near NGC 541, known as Minkowski's object, is named after him.[10]

Bibliography

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  • 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

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References

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  1. ^ "Minkowski". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  2. ^ a b c Kuhi, Leonard V. (March 1976). "Rudoph L. Minkowski". Physics Today. 29 (3): 78–80. doi:10.1063/1.3023389.
  3. ^ "Minor Planet Discoverers (by number)". Minor Planet Center. 23 May 2016. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  4. ^ Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present: I–M
  5. ^ The Concise Dictionary of American Jewish Biography
  6. ^ http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/minkowski-rudolph.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Minkowski, R. (1962), Internal Dispersion of Velocities in Other Galaxies
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ 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.
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