Werner Landgraf | |
|---|---|
 Werner Landgraf (1991) | |
| Born | (1959-07-29)July 29, 1959 (age 66) Mainz, Germany |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics, Cosmology, Fundamental Physics |
| Thesis | Nichtgravitative Kräfte beim Halleyschen Kometen (1988) |
| Doctoral advisor | Hans-Heinrich Voigt |
Werner Landgraf (born 29 July 1959, inMainz) is a Germanastrophysicist and a discoverer ofminor planets.
W. Landgraf studied physics at theUniversity of Siegen in 1977 and was working on his first astronomical projects.[1] His earliest work was very inspired byBrian G. Marsden and Victor Shor. Two years later, he joined the Department of Astrophysics ofUniversity of Göttingen. There he presented his thesisThe calculation of atmospheric models and line profiles for the analysis of stellar spectra. He graduated from the university in 1983,[2] and then he worked until 1988 on his dissertationNongravitational forces of Comet Halley,[3] under supervision byHans-Heinrich Voigt.
In 1986, W. Landgraf received a teaching position at the University of Siegen. In addition to the main lecture about astronomy and astrophysics, he gave lectures also on solar system objects and their motion, Relativity and Cosmology.[4]
W. Landgraf's work mainly concerns the verification and determination ofastronomical constants of thereference system, themasses of the planets, non-gravitational forces and the verification of thegravitational law within theSolar System. He developed and improved methods for identifying and calculating the orbits of different objects in the Solar System. He busied himself in this work with numerousminor planets with emphasis on thenear-Earth asteroids,comets, their long term dynamics,[5] and with theobservation of small planets and comets.[5]
He also developed a method of eliminating systematic errors in positioning brighter comets that resulted in a more accurate prediction of theHalley's Comet.[6] A recalculation of the path ofHalley's comet to 2317 BC confirmed that the Greeks had already seen the comet on 466 B.C.[7][8][9]
| 3683 Baumann | 23 June 1987 |
| 4349 Tibúrcio | 5 June 1989 |
| 4378 Voigt | 14 May 1988 |
| 7696 Liebe | 10 May 1988 |
| 9938 Kretlow | 14 May 1988 |
| 17412 Kroll | 24 May 1988 |
| 29148 Palzer | 10 May 1988 |
He discovered seven minor planets including3683 Baumann,4378 Voigt (named after Hans-Heinrich Voigt),9938 Kretlow and4349 Tibúrcio atESO'sLa Silla Observatory in northern Chile.[10][11]
He examined the properties,individuation and interaction ofcausets, which each starts from the affirmation that "everything what exists, acts" as its first element and as its sphere of validity successively produces really news, not predetermined by nor contained in and linear independent from old, and that the earliest elements or occurred facts and their aftereffects appear as its internal logical, geometrical, physical properties (namely, the first and the next 1,2,4 ... elements of the same rank, represent itsdimensions and corresponding primarynatural forces). Applied to our real world, this would suggest that successive events, world points, and their actions already would be an owndiscrete first dimension and producing force, corresponding toproper time (inclusive a discretevariance and limited vality range of facts and their effects), followed by the similartime; akinematic extension, and two equivalentcurvature-defining geometric extensions. This makes plausible that the dimensions of the world increase proportionally to their elementary units, in a not-localizable manner, very classically and approximately corresponding to a radiation with a wavelength of about the world's size, keeping the biggest part of the world's energy, per each elementary space inclusive at any background or surface one such photon or information and a pressure canceling the gravitational deceleration of expansion.[12]
In 1987, asteroid3132 Landgraf was named after him.[13]
