Biography of Gerard Kuiper
On
December 7, 1905 a small boy by the name of Gerrit Peter Kuiper was born in a
small town in the Netherlands called Tuitjenhorn. His father was a tailor, and
he himself was gifted with extraordinary eyesight that undoubtedly lead to his
early proficiencies in the field of astronomy. Kuiper’s interest in astronomy
would eventually lead him to make many discoveries including natural satellites,
atmospheres, and binary stars, and produce a theory later to be proved true of a
belt of comet-like debris existing in a ring just outside the solar system. All
together this information caused Kuiper to become an astronomer with influence
not limited to just his lifetime.
At
first little Gerrit, who later was called Gerard, focused on his basic interest
in the stars. This is not entirely surprising as he had eyesight that allowed
him to see stars with a magnitude of 7.5, essentially four times dimmer than
the average eye can see. By the time he reached the age of nineteen in 1924
Gerard began his studies with a number of other astronomers at Leiden
University. He graduated in 1927 and completed his doctorate work- fittingly on
binary stars- in 1933. At this time Kuiper moved to the United States and began
work as a fellow in California under Robert Grant Aiken at the Lick
Observatory. A few years later he left to work at the Harvard College
Observatory.
In 1935 while at this observatory, Kuiper met a young
woman by the name of Sarah
Parker Fuller. The next year, they were married. The real successes for Kuiper,
regarding the field of astronomy, comes in the years to follow as he joins the
Yerkes Observatory in 1937 at the University of Chicago. This same year Gerard
Kuiper became a naturalized citizen. As an official Dutch-American astronomer
Gerard Kuiper, now thirty two, began the bulk of his studies of the skies. In
the time between his observing Kuiper found time to be a director of the
observatory twice: once in 1947 and once in 1957. In 1944 he was focused more
on planetary research and was able to confirm the presence of methane in the
atmosphere of Titan, a moon of Saturn. By 1947 the interest in planets
continued and Kuiper correctly predicted carbon dioxide as the main ingredient
in the atmosphere of Mars, as well as the rings of Saturn being composed of ice
particles. His research extended as far as Uranus, of which he discovered the
fifth moon, Miranda. Over the next seven years Kuiper discovered Nereid
orbiting Neptune, proved the polar ice caps on Mars are made of frozen water
and not carbon dioxide, and proposed three major theories/predictions. The
first of these was an influential new theory on the origins of the solar system.
Kuiper proposed that the planets had formed from the condensation of a large
cloud of gas surrounding the sun. In addition to this he predicted that the
surface of the moon would be like ‘crunchy snow’ to walk on- verified later by
Armstrong and his description of the moon’s surface. Two years after his solar
system origin theory he suggested the presence of a disk-shaped region of minor
planets outside the orbit of Neptune. While he was not able to confirm this during
his life, it was in fact proven to be true twenty years after his death with
the presence of what is today called the Kuiper Belt.
In 1960 Kuiper founded the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
at the University of Arizona and was the director for the next thirteen years,
until his death in 1973. Kuiper died while on vacation with his wife, Sarah, in
Mexico. In his honor were named: The Kuiper Airborne Observatory, craters on
the moon, Mercury, and Mars, and the Kuiper belt itself- the most recognized of
his influences.
