Walter Sydney Adams (December 20, 1876 – May 11, 1956) was an American astronomer.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Walter Sydney Adams
Walter Sydney Adams
Born	(1876-12-20)December 20, 1876 Antioch, Turkey
Died	May 11, 1956(1956-05-11) (aged 79) Pasadena, California, U.S.
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Dartmouth College University of Chicago
Awards	Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1917) Henry Draper Medal (1918) Valz Prize (1923) Bruce Medal (1928) ForMemRS (1950)[1]
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	Mount Wilson Observatory Yerkes Observatory

Life and work

Adams was born in Antioch, Turkey, to Lucien Harper Adams and Nancy Dorrance Francis Adams, missionary parents,[7] and was brought to the U.S. in 1885[1] He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1898, then continued his education in Chicago and in Germany. After returning to the U.S., he began a career in Astronomy that culminated when he became director of the Mount Wilson Observatory.

His primary interest was the study of stellar spectra. He worked on solar spectroscopy and co-discovered a relationship between the relative intensities of certain spectral lines and the absolute magnitude of a star. He was able to demonstrate that spectra could be used to determine whether a star was a giant or a dwarf. In 1915 he began a study of the companion of Sirius and found that despite a size only slightly larger than the Earth, the surface of the star was brighter per unit area than the Sun and it was about as massive.[8] Such a star later came to be known as a white dwarf. In 1925, he observed gravitational redshift caused by Sirius B; this was significant confirmation of Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Along with Theodore Dunham, he discovered the strong presence of carbon dioxide in the infrared spectrum of Venus.

Adams died at the age of 79 in Pasadena, California.

Awards and honors

Awards and honors

• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1917)[9]
• Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1918)[10]
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1922)[11]
• Valz Prize from the French Academy of Sciences (1923)[12]
• Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society (1926)
• Bruce Medal (1928)[13][14]
• Janssen Medal from the French Academy of Sciences (1934)
• Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) (1950)[1]
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1947)

Named after him

• The asteroid 3145 Walter Adams.
• The crater Adams, a crater on Mars.[15]
• The crater Adams on the Moon is jointly named after him, John Couch Adams and Charles Hitchcock Adams.

References

Further reading

• Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Isaac Asimov, Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1972, ISBN 0-385-17771-2.

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