Stewart Sharpless
Stewart Sharpless (1926-2013)[1][2] was an American astronomer who carried out fundamental work on the structure of the Milky Way galaxy.
As a graduate student at Yerkes Observatory he worked under William Morgan with fellow graduate student Don Osterbrock.[3] In 1952, they published their observations that demonstrated the spiral structure of the Milky Way by estimating the distances to H II regions and young hot stars. For a while Sharpless was at Mount Wilson Observatory where he worked on galaxy photography with Walter Baade and Edwin Hubble.[4]
In 1953 Sharpless joined the staff of the United States Naval Observatory Flagstaff Station.[4] Here he surveyed and cataloged H II regions of the Milky Way Galaxy using the images from the Palomar Sky Survey. From this work Sharpless published his catalog of H II regions in two editions, the first in 1953 with 142 nebula.[5] The second and final edition was published in 1959 with 313 nebulae[6] (see Sharpless catalog).
Stewart Sharpless is currently a retired Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester.
References
- ↑ Stewart Lane Sharpless
- ↑ Sharpless, Stewart Lane
- ↑ Shirley K. Cohen, Interview with Donald E. Osterbrock, Feb 10, 2003, California Institute of Technology Archives
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Steven, Dick (2002). Sky and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81599-4.
- ↑ Stewart Sharpless, A Catalogue of Emission Nebulae Near the Galactic Plane, Astrophysical Journal, vol. 118, p.362, 1953
- ↑ Stewart Sharpless, A Catalogue of H II Regions, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 4, p.257, 1959
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