Fred Lawrence Whipple
Fred Lawrence Whipple | |
|---|---|
Whipple in 1982 | |
| Born | November 5, 1906 Red Oak, Iowa, U.S. |
| Died | August 30, 2004 (aged 97) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Los Angeles University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Composition of comets Whipple shield Operation Moonwatch |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Harvard College Observatory, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics |
| Thesis | A Spectrophotometric Study of the Cepheid Variables η Aquilae and δ Cephei (1931) |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald Menzel, Armin Leuschner |
| Doctoral students | Leland Cunningham James W. Warwick Harlan James Smith Frances Woodworth Wright Joseph Veverka |
| 1252 Celestia | 19 February 1933 | list |
| C/1932 P1[1] | 6 August 1932 |
| 36P/Whipple | 15 October 1933 |
| C/1937 C1 | 7 February 1937 |
| C/1940 O1[2] | 8 August 1940 |
| C/1942 C1[3] | 25 January 1942 |
| C/1942 X1[4] | 8 December 1942 |
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Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer, who worked at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Among his achievements were asteroid and comet discoveries, the "dirty snowball" hypothesis of comets, and the invention of the Whipple shield.