Walter Baade

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Asteroids discovered: 10
930 Westphalia	March 10, 1920
934 Thüringia	August 15, 1920
944 Hidalgo	October 31, 1920
966 Muschi	November 9, 1921
967 Helionape	November 9, 1921
1036 Ganymed	October 23, 1924
1103 Sequoia	November 9, 1928
1566 Icarus	June 27, 1949
5656 Oldfield	October 8, 1920
7448 Pöllath	January 14, 1948

Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24, 1893–June 25, 1960) was a German astronomer who emigrated to the USA in 1931.

1 Biography
2 Honors
3 Further reading
4 External links
- 4.1 Obituaries

[edit] Biography

Along with Fritz Zwicky, he proposed that supernovae could create neutron stars.

He took advantage of wartime blackout conditions during World War II, which reduced light pollution at Mount Wilson Observatory, to resolve stars in the center of the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, which led him to define distinct "populations" for stars (Population I and Population II).

He discovered that there are two types of Cepheid variable stars, together with Fritz Zwicky identified supernovae as a new category of astronomical objects (W. Baade, F. Zwicky, 1934, "On Super-Novae". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 254-259.) and proposed the existence of neutron stars. He also identified the optical counterparts of various radio sources.

He discovered 10 asteroids, including notably 944 Hidalgo (long orbital period) and the Apollo-class asteroid 1566 Icarus (whose perihelion is closer than that of Mercury) and the Amor asteroid 1036 Ganymed.

[edit] Honors

Awards

Named after him

Asteroid 1501 Baade
Baade crater on the Moon
Vallis Baade, a vallis (valley) on the Moon
One of the two Magellan telescopes
Baade's Window, an area relatively free of dust near the Galactic Center in Sagittarius
The asteroid 966 Muschi

[edit] Further reading

Osterbrock, Donald E.. Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics. ISBN 0-691-04936-X.

Dieke, Sally H. (1970). "Baade, Wilhelm Heinrich Walter". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 352-354. ISBN 0684101149.