Gerard Kuiper

Born on 7 December 1905 in the Netherlands, Gerard Kuiper was a pivotal figure in 20th-century planetary science. Kuiper studied astronomy at the University of Leiden, earning his PhD in 1933. He then moved to the US, where he worked at California’s Lick Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory before accepting a position at the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory in 1937. Through the mid 1940s, Kuiper’s research focused mainly on stellar astronomy, primarily binary stars and white dwarf clusters. After being made a full professor in 1943, Kuiper turned his attention to solar system bodies, investigating such phenomena as planetary atmospheres and asteroid origins. Among his many important discoveries were the presence of methane in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan and a new satellite of Uranus. Kuiper also served two terms, 1947–49 and 1957–60, as the director of both the Yerkes Observatory and the McDonald Observatory in Texas. In 1960 he moved to the University of Arizona, where he founded the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. He worked on several lunar projects for NASA. Kuiper received a number of awards, including the Jules Janssen Prize of the French astronomical society and the Rittenhouse Medal. The Kuiper belt , the collection of minor planets and other rocky and icy bodies outside Neptune’s orbit, was named in his honor. He died in 1973 at age 68. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection)

Date in History: 7 December 1905