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Jan Öort
Life Details
Born: April 28th, 1900. Died: November 5th, 1992.
Introduction
Most recognised for giving calculations for the Öort Cloud, an extra stellar sphere of comets and icy objects beyond the Kuiper Belt, Jan Öort gave us proof of galactic rotation, gave us a galactic structure and other galactic theories.
Early Life
Jan Hendrik Öort was born to parents who were both of the clergy. His family line shows a long line of clergy and religious people. This was not so much for Jan, who, as a teenager, became interested in astronomy. He would study physics at Groningen University in 1917, and later went to the US to work in Yale. He found that he was more and more looking at further researching theories that weren't finished in astronomy. In 1926, he wrote a thesis on the properties of high-velocity stars. His work here showed that he was capable of backing up work, and just a year later, he backed up Bertil Lindblad's theory that the rate of rotation in stars at the outer limits of the galactic core slowed up.
He did this by providing two formulae that gave two constants. They are now known as Öort's constants. He was able to show that the Sun was on its own orbit in the galaxy, and that stars in the outer regions of space rotate slower than those near the centre. This proved the theory of differential rotation.
Öort's other work also included mapping the Milky Way - his work showed that it was in the shape of a spinning Catherine Wheel; use of radio telescopy - this meant his research also showed that the spinning arms of the galaxy contained a lot of hydrogen, being a birthplace for new stars; light from the Crab Nebula was found out to be polarized; the now named Öort cloud - a place where long-period comets came from outside of the Kuiper Belt. He also found the first evidence for dark matter by further studies of the Milky Way.
The Most Important Astrophysicist of the Century
More recent publications and news articles have suggested that Jan Öort was one of the most important astrophysicists of the 20th Century, and that he has firmly put the Netherlands on the map for being some of the top rated scientists of the world.
