Fred Lawrence Whipple
Encyclopedia
Fred Lawrence Whipple was an American
astronomer
, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory
for over 70 years. Amongst his achievements, he discovered some asteroid
s and comet
s, came up with the "dirty snowball" cometary hypothesis, and designed the Whipple shield
.
, as the son of a farmer. An early bout with polio ended his ambition of being a professional tennis
player. Whipple studied at Occidental College
in Southern California
, then majored in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, graduating in 1927. Recollecting his path from mathematics to astronomy, Whipple stated in a 1978 autobiography that his "mathematics major veered [him] through physics and finally focused on astronomy where time, space, mathematics, and physics had a common meeting ground."
After taking a class in astronomy, he enlisted at the University of California, Berkeley
where he obtained his PhD in Astronomy in 1931. While in graduate school, he helped map the orbit of the newly discovered planet Pluto
. He joined Harvard College Observatory
in 1931 and studied the trajectories of meteors, confirming that they originated within the solar system
rather than from interstellar space. In 1933, he discovered the periodic comet
36P/Whipple
and the asteroid
1252 Celestia
. He also discovered or co-discovered five other non-periodic comets, the first of which was C/1932 P1 Peltier-Whipple, independently discovered by the famed amateur astronomer Leslie Peltier
.
During World War II
, he invented a device for cutting tinfoil into chaff to confuse enemy radar
tracking Allied aircraft. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit for this in 1948. He also invented a "meteor bumper" or "Whipple shield
", which protects spacecraft from impact by small particles by vaporizing them.
From 1950 until 1977 he was a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University
, including being the Phillips Professor of Astronomy between 1968 and 1977. During these years (in the early 1950s), he wrote a series of influential papers entitled A Comet Model, published in Astrophysical Journal
. In these papers, he proposed the "icy conglomerate" hypothesis of comet
composition (later called the "dirty snowball" hypothesis). The basic features of this hypothesis were later confirmed, however the exact amount (and thus the importance) of ices in a comet is an active field of research, with most of the recently obtained data pointing to a low contribution of ices to a comet's mass (dubbed the "icy dirtball" hypothesis). He also anticipated the era of artificial satellites and organized the members of Operation Moonwatch
to track them. These groups were the only ones prepared and ready to make observations when the Soviet Union
unexpectedly launched Sputnik I in 1957. He became director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
when Loyal Blaine Aldrich
retired in 1955, and remained in this post until 1973.
Whipple died in 2004, aged 97.
Named after him
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839...
for over 70 years. Amongst his achievements, he discovered some asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
s and comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s, came up with the "dirty snowball" cometary hypothesis, and designed the Whipple shield
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range between ....
.
Life
Whipple was born on November 5, 1906, in Red Oak, IowaRed Oak, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 5,742 in the city, with a population density of . There were 2,887 housing units, of which 2,406 were occupied....
, as the son of a farmer. An early bout with polio ended his ambition of being a professional tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
player. Whipple studied at Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
, then majored in mathematics at the University of California at Los Angeles, graduating in 1927. Recollecting his path from mathematics to astronomy, Whipple stated in a 1978 autobiography that his "mathematics major veered [him] through physics and finally focused on astronomy where time, space, mathematics, and physics had a common meeting ground."
After taking a class in astronomy, he enlisted at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
where he obtained his PhD in Astronomy in 1931. While in graduate school, he helped map the orbit of the newly discovered planet Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
. He joined Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839...
in 1931 and studied the trajectories of meteors, confirming that they originated within the solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
rather than from interstellar space. In 1933, he discovered the periodic comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
36P/Whipple
36P/Whipple
36P/Whipple is a periodic comet in our solar system.The comet nucleus is estimated to be 4.5 kilometers in diameter.-External links:* from JPL / ** – Seiichi Yoshida @ aerith.net...
and the asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
1252 Celestia
1252 Celestia
1252 Celestia is a Main-belt asteroid discovered on February 19, 1933 by Fred Lawrence Whipple at Harvard. Celestia is named after Whipple's mother, Celestia MacFarland Whipple.- External links :*...
. He also discovered or co-discovered five other non-periodic comets, the first of which was C/1932 P1 Peltier-Whipple, independently discovered by the famed amateur astronomer Leslie Peltier
Leslie Peltier
Leslie Copus Peltier was an American astronomer.He was born in Delphos, Ohio. An amateur astronomer, he was a prolific discoverer of comets and also a persistent observer of variable stars and member of the AAVSO...
.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he invented a device for cutting tinfoil into chaff to confuse enemy radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
tracking Allied aircraft. He was awarded a Certificate of Merit for this in 1948. He also invented a "meteor bumper" or "Whipple shield
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range between ....
", which protects spacecraft from impact by small particles by vaporizing them.
From 1950 until 1977 he was a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, including being the Phillips Professor of Astronomy between 1968 and 1977. During these years (in the early 1950s), he wrote a series of influential papers entitled A Comet Model, published in Astrophysical Journal
Astrophysical Journal
The Astrophysical Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1895 by the American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James Edward Keeler. It publishes three 500-page issues per month....
. In these papers, he proposed the "icy conglomerate" hypothesis of comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
composition (later called the "dirty snowball" hypothesis). The basic features of this hypothesis were later confirmed, however the exact amount (and thus the importance) of ices in a comet is an active field of research, with most of the recently obtained data pointing to a low contribution of ices to a comet's mass (dubbed the "icy dirtball" hypothesis). He also anticipated the era of artificial satellites and organized the members of Operation Moonwatch
Operation Moonwatch
Operation Moonwatch was an amateur science program formally initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1956 . The SAO organized Moonwatch as part of the International Geophysical Year which was probably the largest single scientific undertaking in history...
to track them. These groups were the only ones prepared and ready to make observations when the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
unexpectedly launched Sputnik I in 1957. He became director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where it is joined with the Harvard College Observatory to form the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics .-History:The SAO was founded in 1890 by...
when Loyal Blaine Aldrich
Loyal Blaine Aldrich
Loyal Blaine Aldrich was an American astrophysicist and astronomer of the Smithsonian Institution. Upon graduation from the University of Wisconsin in 1907, Aldrich became a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory assistant to Charles Greeley Abbot...
retired in 1955, and remained in this post until 1973.
Whipple died in 2004, aged 97.
Honors
Awards- Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Award, by US President John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
(1963) - Leonard MedalLeonard MedalThe Leonard Medal honors outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields. It is awarded by the Meteoritical Society. It was established in 1962 to honor the first President of the Society, Frederick C. Leonard....
of the Meteoritical SocietyMeteoritical SocietyThe Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of the origin and history of the solar system.The...
(1970) - Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical SocietyGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society-History:In the early years, more than one medal was often awarded in a year, but by 1833 only one medal was being awarded per year. This caused a problem when Neptune was discovered in 1846, because many felt an award should jointly be made to John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier...
(1983) - Bruce MedalBruce MedalThe Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898...
of the Astronomical Society of the PacificAstronomical Society of the PacificThe Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on the Pacific Coast, but today it has members all over the country and the world...
(1986) - Henry Norris Russell LectureshipHenry Norris Russell LectureshipThe Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research.-Previous lecturers:This list of lecturers is from the American Astronomical Society's website....
of the American Astronomical SocietyAmerican Astronomical SocietyThe American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...
(1987) - Whipple AwardWhipple AwardThe Whipple Award, established in 1989 by the Planetary Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union, is presented to an individual who makes an outstanding contribution to the field of planetary science. The award was established to honor Fred Whipple....
of the American Geophysical UnionAmerican Geophysical UnionThe American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
(1990)
Named after him
- Asteroid 1940 Whipple1940 Whipple1940 Whipple is a main-belt asteroid discovered on February 2, 1975 by Harvard College at Agassiz Station.- External links :*...
- Whipple Observatory on Mount HopkinsMount Hopkins (Arizona)Mount Hopkins is a mountain in Santa Cruz County, Arizona part of the Santa Rita Mountains range. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory is located on it. It is within the Coronado National Forest and was named after Gilbert Hopkins who was killed nearby in 1865 during the Battle of Fort Buchanan....
in ArizonaArizonaArizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix... - Whipple shieldWhipple shieldThe Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range between ....
- Whipple House on Great CamanoeGreat CamanoeGreat Camanoe is a small island located just north of Beef Island and northeast of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which forms part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea....
in the British Virgin IslandsBritish Virgin IslandsThe Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...
(not to be confused with the John Whipple HouseJohn Whipple HouseThe John Whipple House is a historic colonial house and National Historic Landmark in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built in the seventeenth century, the house has been open to the public as a museum since 1899.-History:...
, in Ipswich, Massachusetts).