Baade was born the son of a teacher inNorth Rhine-Westphalia,Germany. He finished school in 1912. He then studied maths, physics and astronomy at the universities ofMünster andGöttingen. He received his PhD in 1919.[1]
Baade worked atHamburg Observatory at Bergedorf from 1919 to 1931.[1] In 1920 he discovered944 Hidalgo, the first of a class of minor planets now calledCentaurs which cross the orbits of giant planets.
Together withFritz Zwicky, he identifiedsupernovae as a new category of astronomical objects.[7][8] Zwicky and he also proposed the existence ofneutron stars, and suggested supernovae might create them.[9]
Beginning in 1952, he andRudolph Minkowski identified the optical counterparts of variousradio sources,[10] includingCygnus A. He discovered 10asteroids, including944 Hidalgo, which has a long orbital period (it is actually the firstcentaur ever discovered, although they were not recognized as a distinct dynamical class until 1977); theApollo-class1566 Icarus, the perihelion of which is closer than that ofMercury; and theAmor-type1036 Ganymed.
^abOsterbrock, D. E. (Sep 2002). "Walter Baade, Dynamical Astronomer at Goettingen, Hamburg, Mount Wilson, and Palomar Observatories".AAS/Division of Dynamical Astronomy Meeting #33.33. Harvard Univ: 10.03.Bibcode:2002DDA....33.1003O.
^Baade, W. and Minkowski, R., 1954. Identification of the Radio Sources in Cassiopeia, Cygnus A, and Puppis A. Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 119, p. 206-214 (January 1954)ADS: 1954ApJ...119..206B
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