Hendrik C. van de Hulst

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Hendrik Christoffel "Henk" van de Hulst (Utrecht, Nov 19, 1918 – Leiden, Jul 31, 2000) was a Dutch astronomer.

In 1944, while a student in Utrecht, he predicted the existence of the 21 cm hyperfine line of neutral interstellar hydrogen. After this line was discovered, he participated, with Jan Oort and Alex Muller, in the effort to use radio astronomy to map out the neutral hydrogen in our galaxy, which first revealed its spiral structure.

He spent most of his career at the University of Leiden.

[edit] Honors

Awards

• Henry Draper Medal (1955)
• Eddington Medal (1955)
• Bruce Medal (1978)
• Karl-Schwarzschild-Medaille (1995)

Named after him

• Asteroid 2413 van de Hulst

[edit] References

• Tenn, Joe. Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst. Sonoma State University. Retrieved on 2007-01-05.