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Robert Julius Trumpler

 

 
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Robert Julius Trumpler
 
 
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Robert Julius Trumpler (October 2 1886 – September 10 1956, Berkeley
Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland, California and Emeryville, California....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
) was a Swiss
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
-American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
. He was born in Zürich
Zürich

Z?rich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Z?rich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and obtained his early education in that country. He then studied in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 where he earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.

Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip...
 in 1910. In 1915, during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 he emigrated to the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, and joined the University of California
University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges s...
. He took a position at Allegheny Observatory
Allegheny Observatory

The Allegheny Observatory is an United States astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh....
, and later went to Lick Observatory
Lick Observatory

The Lick Observatory is an astronomy 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....
. In 1921, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."...
 in 1932.

He is most noted for observing that the brightness of the more distant open cluster
Open cluster

An open cluster is a star cluster of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still loosely gravity to each other....
s was lower than expected, and the stars appeared more red.






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Robert Julius Trumpler (October 2 1886 – September 10 1956, Berkeley
Berkeley, California

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in Northern California, in the United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland, California and Emeryville, California....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
) was a Swiss
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
-American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
. He was born in Zürich
Zürich

Z?rich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Z?rich. The city is Switzerland's main commercial and cultural centre and sometimes called the Cultural Capital of Switzerland, the political capital of Switzerland being Berne....
, Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 and obtained his early education in that country. He then studied in Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 where he earned his Ph.D.
Ph.D.

Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip...
 in 1910. In 1915, during World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 he emigrated to the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, and joined the University of California
University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges s...
. He took a position at Allegheny Observatory
Allegheny Observatory

The Allegheny Observatory is an United States astronomical research institution, a part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pittsburgh....
, and later went to Lick Observatory
Lick Observatory

The Lick Observatory is an astronomy 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....
. In 1921, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was elected a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."...
 in 1932.

He is most noted for observing that the brightness of the more distant open cluster
Open cluster

An open cluster is a star cluster of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still loosely gravity to each other....
s was lower than expected, and the stars appeared more red. This was explained by the interstellar dust scattered through the galaxy
Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitation system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and cosmic dust, and an important but poorly-understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter....
, resulting in the absorption (extinction) of light or interstellar extinction of light.

Trumpler further studied and catalogued open cluster
Open cluster

An open cluster is a star cluster of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still loosely gravity to each other....
s in order to determine the size of the Milky Way galaxy
Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitation system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas and cosmic dust, and an important but poorly-understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter....
. At first he thought his analysis placed an upper limit on the Milky Way's diameter of about 10,000 parsec
Parsec

The parsec is a units of measurement of astronomical units of length, equal to just under 31 orders_of_magnitude_#1012 kilometres , or about 3.26 light-years....
s with the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
 located somewhat near the center although he later revised this. While catalogueing open clusters he also devised a system for their classification by according them designations for their central concentration, the range of brightness of their individual stars and the number of stars in the cluster. This system of classifying open clusters, called the Trumpler classification, is still in use today.

The Robert J. Trumpler Award
Robert J. Trumpler Award

The Robert J. Trumpler Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is given annually to a recent recipient of the Ph.D degree whose thesis is judged particularly significant to astronomy....
, awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Astronomical Society of the Pacific

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on the Pacific Coast, but today it has members all over the country and the world....
 for an outstanding PhD Thesis in austronomy, is named in his honor.

Honors

The following celestial features are named after him:
  • The crater Trumpler
    Trumpler (lunar crater)

    Trumpler is a Moon Impact crater on the Far side of the Moon, named after Robert Julius Trumpler. It lies just to the south of the crater Nusl , and northwest of Freundlich ....
     on the Moon
    Moon

    The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the List of natural satellites by diameter satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth....
    .
  • A crater
    Impact crater

    In 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 larger body....
     on Mars.


Publications

1. R.J. Trumpler, 1930. Preliminary results on the distances, dimensions and space distribution of open star clusters. Lick Obs. Bull. Vol XIV, No. 420 (1930) 154-188. Table 16 is the Trumpler catalog of open clusters, referred to as "Trumpler (or Tr) 1-37