Karl Guthe Jansky

Karl Guthe Jansky ( born October 22, 1905 in Norman, Oklahoma, † February 14, 1950 in Red Bank, New Jersey) was an American physicist and radio engineer. He was the discoverer of radio astronomy, when he stated in 1932 that the Milky Way radio radiation emitted.

Jansky studied until 1927 at the University of Wisconsin. From 1928 he worked at Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey.

After months of research, he discovered in 1931 that the source was previously unidentified radio interference stellar origin. In 1932 he was able to determine the direction of the constellation Sagittarius as. In this constellation was, according to Harlow Shapley and Jan Hendrik Oort the center of our Milky Way.

Jansky honor was introduced for measurements in radio astronomy the Jansky, an extremely weak signals adapted unit for spectral power flux density:

In addition, the lunar crater Jansky and the main-belt asteroid was named (1932 ) Jansky after him.

In his honor, the Karl G. Jansky Lecture NRAO is named.