Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Peter Kuiper, actually Gerrit Pieter Kuiper ( born December 7, 1905 in Harenkarspel, † December 24, 1973 in Mexico City) was an American astronomer Dutch origin.
Life
Kuiper was the oldest of four children. His parents were Gerrit ( a trained cutter ) and Antje de Vries was born. He studied from 1924 Astronomy at the University of Leiden. In 1927 he successfully completed his Bachelor's degree and pursued directly thereafter his doctorate studies. Kuiper in 1929 to an eight-month expedition to the eclipse in part to Sumatra.
After completing his studies at Leiden University and a doctorate under Ejnar Hertzsprung double star, he went in 1933 in the United States and was employed at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago since 1937. 1949 Kuiper initiated the Yerkes - McDonald Asteroid Survey ( 1950-1952 ). In 1960 he founded at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
He mainly dealt with the solar system. He showed the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and discovered the atmosphere of Titan and Uranus moon Miranda and Neptune's moon Nereid. He also worked on theoretical questions of the formation of the solar system and said named after him Kuiper Belt advance.
Kuiper was also involved in the search for suitable landing sites for the Apollo program by analyzing images of the lunar probes in the 1960s as chief scientist for the NASA Ranger project.