Stewart Sharpless

Stewart Sharpless (March 29, 1926 - January 19, 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 was before his death a retired Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester.

References

  1. ↑ Stewart Lane Sharpless
  2. ↑ Sharpless, Stewart Lane
  3. ↑ Shirley K. Cohen, Interview with Donald E. Osterbrock, Feb 10, 2003, California Institute of Technology Archives
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ Stewart Sharpless, A Catalogue of Emission Nebulae Near the Galactic Plane, Astrophysical Journal, vol. 118, p.362, 1953
  6. ↑ Stewart Sharpless, A Catalogue of H II Regions, Astrophysical Journal Supplement, vol. 4, p.257, 1959

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