Dirk Brouwer

Dirk Brouwer ( born September 1, 1902 in Rotterdam, † January 31, 1966 in New Haven ( Connecticut ) ) was a Dutch- American astronomer.

Brouwer received his doctorate in 1927 at Leiden University and then worked at Yale University. While still a student he determined the mass of Saturn's moon Titan from the perturbations of other Saturn mode.

From 1941 to 1966 he was director of the Yale University Observatory and editor of the Astronomical Journal.

Brouwer developed methods to determine orbits and applied them to comets, asteroids and planets. As one of the first electronic computer he used for astronomical calculations.

Honors and Awards

He was awarded the Bruce Medal in 1966 and in 1955 received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (about: Royal Astronomical Union ).

Moreover, according to him, a crater on the moon and the asteroid have been named 1746. The American Astronomical Society has awarded two honors that were also named after him.

Works

• Together with Gerald Maurice Clemence: Methods of Celestial Mechanics, 1961