Keeler worked at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
beginning in 1888, but left after being appointed director of the
University of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
's
Allegheny ObservatoryThe Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historical Places The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research...
in 1891. He returned to Lick Observatory as its director in 1898, but died not long after in 1900. He had married in 1891 and left a widow and two children. His ashes were interred in a crypt at the base of the 31-inch Keeler Memorial telescope at the
Allegheny ObservatoryThe Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historical Places The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research...
.
Along with George Hale, Keeler founded and edited the
Astrophysical JournalThe Astrophysical Journal is a scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1895 by the American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James E. Keeler...
, which remains a major journal of astronomy today.
Keeler was the first to observe the gap in Saturn's rings now known as the Encke Gap, using the
36-inch refractorThe James Lick Telescope is an antique refracting 36 inch telescope built in 1889 that can still be viewed through today. Also called the "Great Lick Refractor" or simply "Lick Refractor", it is the third-largest refracting telescope in the world, surpassed by the Yerkes Observatory 40-inch and...
at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
on 7 January 1888.
Career
Keeler worked at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
beginning in 1888, but left after being appointed director of the
University of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
's
Allegheny ObservatoryThe Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historical Places The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research...
in 1891. He returned to Lick Observatory as its director in 1898, but died not long after in 1900. He had married in 1891 and left a widow and two children. His ashes were interred in a crypt at the base of the 31-inch Keeler Memorial telescope at the
Allegheny ObservatoryThe Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historical Places The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research...
.
Along with George Hale, Keeler founded and edited the
Astrophysical JournalThe Astrophysical Journal is a scientific journal covering astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1895 by the American astronomers George Ellery Hale and James E. Keeler...
, which remains a major journal of astronomy today.
Research
Keeler was the first to observe the gap in Saturn's rings now known as the Encke Gap, using the
36-inch refractorThe James Lick Telescope is an antique refracting 36 inch telescope built in 1889 that can still be viewed through today. Also called the "Great Lick Refractor" or simply "Lick Refractor", it is the third-largest refracting telescope in the world, surpassed by the Yerkes Observatory 40-inch and...
at
Lick ObservatoryThe Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
on 7 January 1888. After this feature had been named for Johann Encke, who had observed a much broader variation in the brightness of the A Ring, Keeler's contributions were brought to light. The second major gap in the A Ring, discovered by
VoyagerThe Voyager program is a series of U.S. unmanned space missions that consists of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...
, was named the Keeler Gap in his honor.
Asteroidthumb|260px|right|[[253 Mathilde]], a [[C-type asteroid]] measuring about across. Photograph taken in 1997 by the [[NEAR Shoemaker]] probe.Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, especially in the inner Solar System; they are...
s discovered: 2
452 Hamiltonia 452 Hamiltonia is an asteroid. It was discovered by James Edward Keeler on December 6 1899, but was then lost until 1987. Its provisional name was 1899 FD. The asteroid is named for Mount Hamilton, the site of Lick Observatory where Keeler was working when he discovered the asteroid.L. K...
|
December 6, 1899 |
| (20958) A900 MA |
June 29, 1900 |
In 1895, his spectroscopic study of the
rings of SaturnThe rings of Saturn are the most extensive planetary ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometres to metres, that form clumps that in turn orbit about Saturn...
revealed that different parts of the rings reflect light with different
Doppler shiftsThe Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from an observer...
, due to their different
rates of orbitIn astronomy, Kepler's three laws of planetary motion are:#The orbit of every planet is an ellipse with the sun at a focus.#A line joining a planet and the sun sweeps out equal areas during equal intervals of time....
around Saturn. This was the first observational confirmation of the theory of
James Clerk MaxwellJames Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish theoretical physicist and mathematician. His most significant achievement was the development of the classical electromagnetic theory, synthesizing all previous unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and even optics into a...
that the rings are made up of countless small objects, each orbiting Saturn at its own rate. These observations were made with a spectrograph attached to the 13-inch Fitz-Clark refracting telescope at
Allegheny ObservatoryThe Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh. The facility is listed on the National Register of Historical Places The Allegheny Observatory is an American astronomical research...
.
His observations with the Lick
Crossley telescopeThe Crossley telescope is an reflector telescope located at Lick Observatory in the U.S. state of California. Given to the observatory in 1895 by British politician Edward Crossley, it was rebuilt from the ground up as it was on a very flimsy mounting. It is still being used today in the search...
helped establish the importance of large optical reflecting telescopes, and expanded astronomers' understanding of nebulae. After his untimely death, his colleagues at Lick Observatory arranged for the publication of his photographs of nebulae and clusters in a special volume of the Lick Observatory publications.
Keeler discovered two
asteroidthumb|260px|right|[[253 Mathilde]], a [[C-type asteroid]] measuring about across. Photograph taken in 1997 by the [[NEAR Shoemaker]] probe.Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, especially in the inner Solar System; they are...
s, one in 1899 and one in 1900, although the second was lost and only recovered about 100 years later.
Legacy
He won the
Henry Draper MedalThe Henry Draper Medal was established by the widow of Henry Draper, and is awarded by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astrophysics.The recipients have been:-External links:*...
in 1899.
In 1880, Allegheny Observatory director
Samuel Pierpont LangleySamuel Pierpont Langley was an American astronomer, physicist, inventor of the bolometer and pioneer of aviation...
, accompanied by Keeler and others, went on a scientific expedition to the summit of
Mount WhitneyMount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is located at the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, just west of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...
. The purpose of the expedition was to study how the
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
's radiation was selectively absorbed by the
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
's atmosphere, comparing the results at high altitude with those found at lower levels. As a result of the expedition, a 14,240-ft. peak near
Mount WhitneyMount Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of . It is located at the boundary between California's Inyo and Tulare counties, just west of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park...
was named the "Keeler Needle".
In addition to the Keeler Gap in Saturn's rings,
craterIn the broadest sense, the term impact crater can be applied to any depression, natural or manmade, resulting from the high velocity impact of a projectile with a larger body...
s on
MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
and the
MoonKeeler is a large lunar crater that lies on the Moon's far side. It is connected along the eastern edge to Heaviside, a walled plain of similar dimensions. Keeler, however, is the younger of the two formations, with more clearly delineated features...
are named in his honor, as is the
asteroidthumb|260px|right|[[253 Mathilde]], a [[C-type asteroid]] measuring about across. Photograph taken in 1997 by the [[NEAR Shoemaker]] probe.Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, especially in the inner Solar System; they are...
2261 Keeler2261 Keeler is a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on April 20, 1977 by A. R. Klemola at Mount Hamilton. It is named for the astronomer James Edward Keeler, who also discovered two asteroids...
.
External links
obituary, includes extensive list of published writings