Tom Gehrels | |
|---|---|
 Gehrels at Spacewatch Telescope 1980's | |
| Born | (1925-02-21)February 21, 1925 |
| Died | July 11, 2011(2011-07-11) (aged 86) Tucson, Arizona, United States |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
Anton Marie Jacob "Tom"Gehrels[1] (February 21, 1925 – July 11, 2011) was aDutch–American[2]astronomer, Professor of Planetary Sciences, and Astronomer at theUniversity of Arizona, Tucson.
Gehrels was born atHaarlemmermeer,the Netherlands on February 21, 1925. He was born in bible-belt Netherlands, and was forced to attend church regularly, an act he despised. When he was older he rejoiced when he found out his childhood church had been destroyed.[3] DuringWorld War II he was, as a teenager, active in theDutch Resistance.[1] After he escaped toEngland, he was sent back by parachute as an organizer forSpecial Operations Executive SOE committing sabotage against the German forces.[1]
After the war, he attended theUniversity of Leiden where he graduated with a degree in physics and astronomy in 1951. He continued his education at theUniversity of Chicago where he obtained his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in 1956 under ProfessorGerard P. Kuiper[citation needed]. In 1960, he moved to the University of Arizona along withGerard Kuiper where he would remain for the next 50 years.[4]
| C/1972 F1 (Gehrels) | 16 March 1972 |
| 64P/Swift-Gehrels* | 8 February 1973 |
| 78P/Gehrels 2 | 29 September 1973 |
| 82P/Gehrels 3 | 27 October 1975 |
| 90P/Gehrels 1 | 11 October 1972 |
| 270P/Gehrels | 1 February 1997 |
| * in 1889 bySwift, rediscovered | |
|---|---|
| 1778 Alfvén | 26 September 1960 |
| 1864 Daedalus | 24 March 1971 |
| 1873 Agenor | 25 March 1971 |
| 1979 Sakharov | 24 September 1960 |
| 2247 Hiroshima | 24 September 1960 |
| also seeDiscoveries by Tom Gehrels | |
|---|---|
Gehrels pioneered the firstphotometric system ofasteroids in the 1950s, and wavelength dependence ofpolarization ofstars andplanets in the 1960s, each resulting in an extended sequence of papers in theAstronomical Journal.
He discovered, jointly with the husband and wife team ofCornelis Johannes van Houten andIngrid van Houten-Groeneveld, over 4000asteroids, includingApollo asteroids,Amor asteroids, as well as dozens ofTrojan asteroids. That was done in a sky survey using the48-inch Schmidt telescope atPalomar Observatory and shipping the plates to the two Dutch astronomers atLeiden Observatory, who analyzed them for new asteroids. The trio are jointly credited with several thousand discoveries. Gehrels also discovered a number ofcomets.
He was Principal Investigator for the Imaging Photopolarimeter experiment on thePioneer 10 andPioneer 11 first flybys of Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970s.
Gehrels initiated theSpace Science Series of textbooks, was General Editor for the first 30 volumes of the University of Arizona Press, and set the style by participating in the editing of six of them.[4] He also initiated theSpacewatch program in 1980 and was its Principal Investigator (PI) for electronic surveying to obtain statistics of asteroids and comets, includingnear-Earth asteroids. Bob McMillan was co-investigator and manager, and became the PI in 1997.
Gehrels taught an undergraduate course for non-science majors in Tucson in the Fall, and lectured a brief version of that in the Spring at the Physical Research Laboratory inAhmedabad, India. His recent research was oncosmology andevolution of the universe,[4] which was woven in as the guiding thread through these courses. He was the named winner of the 2007Harold Masursky Award for his outstanding service to planetary science.
Gehrels was requested by the JournalNature to write a review on a book regardingWernher von Braun, in which he quotes inmates of concentration campDora. He has therefore charged that von Braun was there regularly and much in charge, and that von Braun bears greater responsibility and guilt than his official biography would imply.[6] Towards the end of the book review it reads:Von Braun needs no phony defense, for he was a great man in his own scientific specialization... What is needed is a more sophisticated historical perspective....
Tom Gehrels was the husband of Aleida J. Gehrels (née de Stoppelaar) and father ofNeil Gehrels, George Gehrels and Jo-Ann Gehrels. He died in Tucson, Arizona. The minor planet1777 Gehrels was named in his honour.[7] Theprofessional and personal papers of Tom Gehrels are held at the University of Arizona.
I shook his bony hand. Suddenly he frowned and looked wounded, recalling the compulsory church visits in the small Dutch village of Halfweg, where he was raised. But then his face brightened again as he said: "Have you been there recently? They've torn it down! It's torn down!"
