Gerard Kuiper, Dutch-American astronomer

Kuiper (center) founded the Lunar and Planetary Lab in Arizona in 1960. Gerard Peter Kuiper (1905-1973) was a Dutch-American astronomer after whom the Kuiper belt was named. He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, allowing him to see magnitude 7.5 stars with the naked eye, about four times fainter than visible to normal eyes. Kuiper discovered two natural satellites of planets in the solar system, namely Uranus's satellite Miranda and Neptune's satellite Nereid. In addition, he discovered carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and the existence of a methane-laced atmosphere above Saturn's satellite Titan in 1944

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

Arizona Astronomer Carbon Dioxide Discovered Eyesight Gerrit Kuiper Laced Lunar Methane Miranda Neptune Nereid Pieter Planetary Satellites Saturn Sharp Uranus

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > PHR