Knut Lundmark

Knut Emil Lundmark ( pronunciation: [ ˌ knʉ ː t lɵn ː dmaɹk ], born June 14, 1889 in Älvsbyn, Norrbotten County, † April 23, 1958 in Lund ) was a Swedish astronomer, and from 1929 to 1955 professor of astronomy and director of the Old Observatory Lund.

Lundmark studied astronomy at the observatory of Uppsala. His 1920 doctoral dissertation written treated The relations of the globular clusters and spiral nebulae to the stellar system ( Relations between the globular clusters and spiral nebulae to the star system, ie the Milky Way ). In the twenties, he worked temporarily at various observatories in the United States, the Lick Observatory and the Mount Wilson Observatory.

Knut Lundmark was one of the pioneers of the study of galaxies and their distances. He was one of the first of the opinion that the galaxies are distant star systems and in size of the Milky Way are comparable.

He determined the distance of the Andromeda nebula due to the occurrence of novae, whose brightness he compared with the brightness of novae of the Milky Way.

In the 1930s he was also a popular writer on astronomical subjects active, and also took part in radio broadcasts. He was in 1954 one of the signatories of the document that finally in 1962 establishing the European Southern Observatory ( ESO) led.

The lunar crater Lundmark is named after him, as is the asteroid ( 1334 ) Lundmarka. The Wolf- Lundmark - Melotte galaxy is also named after him, by Philibert Jacques Melotte and Max Wolf.