biography
pronunciation:
[aw(r)t]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1900–92)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Franeker, The Netherlands. He worked mainly in Leyden Observatory from 1924 (director 1945–70). He proved that our Galaxy is rotating (1927), and calculated the distance of the Sun from the centre of the Galaxy and the period of its orbit. In 1950 he suggested the existence of a sphere of incipient cometary material surrounding the Solar System. He proposed that comets detached themselves from this Oort cloud, and went into orbits about the Sun. The existence of the ‘Oort cloud’ became generally accepted by astronomers. |
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