William Hammond Wright | |
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| Born | (1871-11-04)November 4, 1871 |
| Died | May 16, 1959(1959-05-16) (aged 87) |
| Education | B.S. (1893) |
| Alma mater | University of California |
| Spouse | Elna Leib (m. 1901) |
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| Awards | Henry Draper Medal (1928) Janssen Medal (1928) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1938) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Lick Observatory |
William Hammond Wright (November 4, 1871 – May 16, 1959) was an Americanastronomer and the director of theLick Observatory from 1935 until 1942.[1]
Wright was born inSan Francisco.[2] After graduating in 1893 from theUniversity of California, he became Assistant Astronomer at Lick Observatory. From 1903 to 1906 he worked on establishing the "Southern station" of the observatory atCerro San Cristobal nearSantiago de Chile. It only took him 6 months to start with observations from this new site, and he recorded a large series of radial velocity measurements ofstars in the southern sky. In 1908 he was promoted to Astronomer. From 1918 to 1919 he was stationed atAberdeen Proving Ground working for theordnance section of theUnited States Army. He then returned to the Lick Observatory and worked there until his retirement.
He is most famous for his work on radial velocity of stars in ourgalaxy, and his work with his own version of thespectrograph that he designed himself. He obtained aspectra ofnovas andnebulae. In 1924 he made photographic observations ofMars in multiplewave lengths. From these pictures he concluded that itsatmosphere was about 60 miles (100 km) deep.
Wright was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences in 1922 and theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1935.[3][4] In 1928 Wright received theHenry Draper Medal from theNational Academy of Sciences,[5] and in 1938 theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society.[6] The Martian craterWright and the minor planet1747 Wright are named after him.[7][8] The lunar craterWright is co-named in his honour.[9]
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