Gérard de Vaucouleurs
Gérard de Vaucouleurs | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs 25 April 1918 |
| Died | 7 October 1995(aged 77) |
| Nationality |  France |
| Alma mater | Lycee Charlemagne(BSc, 1936)[1] Sorbonne(PhD, 1949) |
| Known for | De Vaucouleurs's law |
| Spouse | |
| Awards | Henry Norris Russell Lectureship(1988) Prix Jules Janssen(1988) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Yale University Observatory Lowell Observatory Harvard College Observatory University of Texas at Austin |
Gérard Henri de Vaucouleurs(25 April 1918 – 7 October 1995)[2][3]was a Frenchastronomerbest known for his studies of galaxies.[4]
Life and career[edit]
Gerard de Vaucouleurs was born on April 25, 1918 in Paris, he took the maiden name of his mother as his last name.[5]He had an early interest inamateur astronomyand received his undergraduate degree in 1939 at theSorbonnein that city.
After military service in World War II, he resumed his pursuit of astronomy. He was married to fellow astronomerAntoinette de Vaucouleurson October 31, 1944, and the couple would frequently collaborate on astronomical research.[6]
He was fluent in English and spent 1949-51 in England and 1951–57 in Australia atMount Stromlo Observatory.He was atLowell ObservatoryinArizonafrom 1957-1958 and atHarvardfrom 1958-60.
In 1960 he was appointed to theUniversity of Texas at Austin,where he spent the rest of his career. He was one of the first five faculty in the newly formed astronomy department there.[4][6]His wife Antoinette died in 1987. In 1995 he died of a heart attack in his home in Austin at the age of 77.[3]At the time of his death he had a second wife named Elysabeth.[3][5]
Research[edit]
His earliest work had concerned the planet Mars and while at Harvard he used telescope observations from 1909 to 1958 to study theareographiccoordinates of features on the surface of Mars.[7]His later work focused on the study ofgalaxiesand he co-authored theThird Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxieswith his wife Antoinette (1921-1987), a fellow UT Austin astronomer and lifelong collaborator.[6]
His specialty included reanalyzing Hubble and Sandage's galaxy atlas and recomputing the distance measurements utilizing a method of averaging many different kinds of metrics such as luminosity, the diameters of ring galaxies, brightest star clusters, etc., in a method he called "spreading the risks." During the 1950s he promoted the idea that galactic clusters are grouped into superclusters.[3]
Thede Vaucouleurs modified Hubble sequenceis a widely used variant of the standardHubble sequence.
De Vaucouleurs was awarded theHenry Norris Russell Lectureshipby theAmerican Astronomical Societyin 1988. He was awarded thePrix Jules Janssenof theSociété astronomique de France(Astronomical Society of France) in the same year. He and his wife and longtime collaborator, Antoinette, together produced 400 research and technical papers, 20 books and 100 articles for laymen.[3]
See also[edit]
- De Vaucouleurs's law
- Edwin Hubble
- Galaxy color–magnitude diagram
- William Wilson Morgan
- Julien Peridier
References[edit]
- ^"Gerard Henri de Vaucouleurs (1918 - 1995)".American Astronomical Society.Archived fromthe originalon 14 January 2018.Retrieved29 June2017.
- ^Burbidge, E. Margaret (2002)."GÉRARD DE VAUCOULEURS 1918–1995"(PDF).Biographical Memoirs.82.National Academy of Sciences – via National Academy of Sciences Online.
- ^abcdeThomas Jr., Robert McG. (October 11, 1995),"Gerard de Vaucouleurs, 77, Galactic Astronomer, Is Dead",The New York Times,retrieved2012-02-21
- ^ab"Gerard de Vaucouleurs | McDonald Observatory".mcdonaldobservatory.org.Retrieved2023-06-17.
- ^abBurbidge, Geoffrey (30 November 1995)."Gérard de Vaucouleurs (1918-95)"(PDF).Nature.378(6556): 440.Bibcode:1995Natur.378..440B.doi:10.1038/378440a0.S2CID46470185.
- ^abc"In Memoriam: Antoinette de Vaucouleurs, 1921-1987".The University of Texas at Austin. October 13, 2008.
- ^de Vaucouleurs, Gerard (1963). "Precision Mapping of Mars".La Physique des Planetes; Communications Presentees au Onzieme Colloque International d'Astrophysique tenu a Liège, les 9, 10 et 11 Juillet 1962.Vol. 11. pp. 369–385.Bibcode:1963LIACo..11..369D.
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Further reading[edit]
- Lahav O; Naim A; Buta RJ; et al. (1995), "Galaxies, Human Eyes, and Artificial Neural Networks",Science,267(5199): 859–62,arXiv:astro-ph/9412027,Bibcode:1995Sci...267..859L,doi:10.1126/science.267.5199.859,PMID17813914,S2CID43370373
- de Vaucouleurs, G (1993), "Tests of the long and short extragalactic distance scales",PNAS,90(11): 4811–4813,Bibcode:1993PNAS...90.4811V,doi:10.1073/pnas.90.11.4811,PMC46605,PMID11607392
- Masursky H; Batson RM; McCauley JF; et al. (1972), "Mariner 9 Television Reconnaissance of Mars and Its Satellites: Preliminary Results",Science,175(4019): 294–305,Bibcode:1972Sci...175..294M,doi:10.1126/science.175.4019.294,PMID17814535,S2CID24829001
- de Vaucouleurs, G; Wertz, JR (1971), "Hierarchical big bang cosmology",Nature,231(5298): 109,Bibcode:1971Natur.231..109D,doi:10.1038/231109a0,PMID16062575,S2CID4295040
- de Vaucouleurs, G (1970), "Postscript",Science,168(3934): 917,doi:10.1126/science.168.3934.917-a,PMID17844177
- de Vaucouleurs, G (1970), "The Case for a Hierarchical Cosmology",Science,vol. 167, no. 3922, pp. 1203–1213,Bibcode:1970Sci...167.1203D,doi:10.1126/science.167.3922.1203,PMID17751407
External links[edit]
- Oral history interview transcript with Gérard de Vaucouleurs on 7 November 1988, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Oral history interview transcript with Gérard de Vaucouleurs on 20 November 1991, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Oral history interview transcript with Gérard de Vaucouleurs on 23 November 1991, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Obituary: Gerard Henri De Vaucouleurs, 1918-1995
- Biography
- http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/normal_galaxies.html
- E. Margaret Burbidge, "Gerard de Vaucouleurs", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2002)
Other resources[edit]
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