Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade

Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade

1955

Date of Birth
: 
March 24, 1893
Date of Death
: 
June 25, 1960

Born in Germany and educated at Göttingen, Walter Baade worked at the Hamburg Observatory from 1919 to 1931 and at Mt. Wilson from 1931 to 1958. He and Fritz Zwicky proposed in 1934 that supernovae could produce cosmic rays and neutron stars, and Baade made extensive studies of the Crab Nebula and its central star. During World War II blackouts of the Los Angeles area Baade used the 100-inch Hooker telescope to resolve stars in the central region of the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time. This led to his definition of two stellar populations, to the realization that there were two kinds of Cepheid variable stars, and from there to a doubling of the assumed scale of the universe. Baade and Rudolph Minkowski identified and took spectrograms of optical counterparts of many of the first-discovered radio sources, including Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A. Baade also discovered the asteroids Hidalgo and Icarus.

Presentation of Bruce medal

Wilson, Olin C., PASP 67, 56-71 (1955).

Other awards

American Astronomical Society, Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, 1958.
Royal Astronomical Society, Gold medal, 1954, presented by J. Jackson, MNRAS 114, 370 (1954).

Biographical materials

Borgelt, Gerda-Ilke, “Zum Geburtstag von Walter Baade”
Club Astronomique du Val de Loir [in French]
Dieke, Sally H., Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1, 352-54.
Florence, Ronald, Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (Springer, NY, 2007), pp. 73-74.
Osterbrock, Donald E., “Walter Baade, Observational Astrophysicist”
   (1): “The Preparation 1893-1931,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 26, 1-32 (1995).
   (2): “Mount Wilson 1931-1947,” Journal for the History of Astronomy 27, 301-348 (1996).
   (3): “Palomar and Göttingen 1948-1960 (Part A),” Journal for the History of Astronomy 28, 283-316 (1997).
   (3): “Palomar and Göttingen 1948-1960 (Part B),” Journal for the History of Astronomy 29, 345-77 (1998).
Osterbrock, Donald E., Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics (Princeton University Press, 2001).
Osterbrock, Donald E., “Walter Baade, Master Observer,” Mercury 31, 4, 32-41 (2002).
Richardson, Robert S., The Star Lovers (Macmillan, NY, 1967).
Schmidt-Kaler, Theodor, “Walter Baades Wissenschaftliche Genealogie,” Die Sterne 70, 2, 90-100 (1994).
Schmidt-Kaler, Theodor, “Baades Arbeiten und ihre Bedeutung in der Perspektive der historische Entwicklung,” Die Sterne 70, 5, 277-85 (1994).
Sharov, A.S., “Walter Baade - A Remarkable Astronomer-Observer of the 20th Century,” Istoriko-Astronomicheskie Issledovaniya 26, 98-148, 262 (2001) [in Russian. Abstract].

Obituaries

Arp, Halton C., JRASC 55, 113-16 (1961).
Heckmann, Otto, Mitteilungen der Astronomischer Gesellschaft 94, 5-11 (1961) [includes list of Baade’s publications].
Sandage, Allan, QJRAS 2, 118-21 (1961).
Schoenberg, E., Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaftern Jahrbuch, 1960 177-81.
Wachmann, A.A., Die Sterne 36, 204-07 (1960).
More obituaries

Portraits

American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Caltech Archives
AIP Center for History of Physics
Friedman, Jon R., Portrait Sketch
University of Chicao Photo Archive

Named after him

Lunar crater Baade
Minor Planet #1501 Baade
Baade’s Window
The Walter Baade Telescope (formerly Magellan I)

Bibliography

Papers, etc.

Papers are at the Huntington Library. Excellent introduction, presumably by Mt. Wilson archivist Helen S. Czaplicki. 22 boxes, partially catalogued by Henrietta Swope.

There is a bibliography of works by Baade compiled by Th. Schmidt-Kaler and H. Wendker appended to O. Heckmann’s obituary of Baade in Astronomische Gesellschaft Mitteilungen 14, 5-11 (1960). The complete list was to appear in Die Sterne.

The AIP Niels Bohr Library & Archives has a 1977 oral history interview conducted by David DeVorkin [Swope was Baade’s assistant].

Other References: Historical

Blaauw, Adriaan, ed., Co-ordination of Galactic Research: IAU Symposium No. 1 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1955).

Christiansen, Gale E. Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1995).

Croswell, Ken, The Alchemy of the Heavens: Searching for Meaning in the Milky Way, (Anchor Books, New York, 1995).

Florence, Ronald, The Perfect Machine (HarperCollins, New York, 1994).

Gingerich, Owen, “The Discovery of the Spiral Arms of the Milky Way,” The Milky Way Galaxy, IAU Symposium 106, ed. by Hugo van Woerden, Ronald J. Allen, and W. Butler Burton (E. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1985), pp. 59-70 [abstract].

Gingerich, Owen, “The Summer of 1953: A Watershed for Astrophysics,” Physics Today 47, 12, 34-40 (1994).

Herrmann, Dieter B., “Walter Baade und die Kosmische Entfernungsskala Zum 100. Geburtstag des Bedeutenden Astronom,” Astronomie + Raumfahrt 30, 9-11 (July 1993).

Hodge, Paul, The Andromeda Galaxy (Kluwer, Dordrecht, NL, 1992).

Hoyle, Fred, Home is Where the Wind Blows: Chapters from a Cosmologist’s Life (University Science Books, 1994).

Korte, Ansgar, “Ein Denkmal für Walter Baade,” Acta Historica Astronomiae 23, 279-282 (2004). [English translation by Hilmar Duerbeck, “A Memorial for Walter Baade” is posted here by permission].

Müller, Roland, Fritz Zwicky: Leben und Werk des grossen Schweizer Astrophysikers, Raketenforschers und Morphologen (1898-1974) (Verlag Baeschlin, Glarus, Switzerland, 1986).

Osterbrock, Donald E., “Walter Baade’s Discovery of the Two Stellar Populations,” in Stellar Populations: proceedings of the 164th symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in the Hague, the Netherlands, August 15 -19, 1994. Pieter C. van der Kruit, Gerry Gilmore, eds.. International Astronomical Union. Symposium no. 164, (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1995), pp. 21-30.

Sandage, Allan, “The Population Concept, Globular Clusters, Subdwarfs, Ages, and the Collapse of the Galaxy,” Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 24, 421-58 (1986).

Sandage, Allan, “The First 50 Years at Palomar: 1949–1999 The Early Years of Stellar Evolution, Cosmology, and High-Energy Astrophysics,” Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys 37, 445-486 (1999).

Sandage, Allan, Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Vol. 1 The Mount Wilson Observatory (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004).

Schramm, K. Jochen, Sterne über Hamburg: die Geschichte der Astronomie in Hamburg (Kultur- und Geschichtskontor, Hamburg, 1996)
http://www.friedensblitz.de/sterne/Index.html

Schramm, K.-J., Hamburger Sternwarte - Overview History
http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/EN/Oef/Stw/gesch.html

Thorne, Kip S., Black Holes & Time Warps (W.W. Norton, New York, 1994).

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Other References: Scientific

Baade, W., “Zwei neue kurzperiodische Veränderliche,” Astr. Nach. 213, 157-58 (1921).

Baade, Walter, “Über eine Möglichkeit, die Pulsationstheorie der δ Cephei-Veränderlichen zu prüten,” Astr. Nach. 228, 359-62 (1926).

Baade, W., F. Goos, P.P. Koch, & R. Minkowski, “Die Intensitätsverteilung in den Spektrallinien des Orion-Nebels,” Zeit. Astr. 6, 355-84 (1933).

Baade, W. & F. Zwicky, “On Super-Novae,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20, 254-59 (1934) [reprinted with commentary in Lang, Kenneth R. & Owen Gingerich, eds., A Source Book in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1900-1975 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979), 469-73.

Baade, Walter & F. Zwicky, “Cosmic Rays from Super-Novae,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20, 259-63 (1934)

Baade, W. & F. Zwicky, “Cosmic Rays from Super-novae,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 20, 259-63 (1934).

Baade, W., “The Distance of the Cygnus Cloud,” Ap.J. 79, 475-82 (1934).

Baade, Walter & F. Zwicky, “Remarks on Supernovae and Cosmic Rays,” Physical Review 46, 76-77 (1934).

Baade, Walter, “On the Number of Asteroids Brighter than Photographic Magnitude 19. 0,” PASP 46, 54 (1934).

Baade, W. & R. Minkowski, “The Trapezium Cluster of the Orion Nebula; Ap.J. 86, 119-22 (1937).

Baade, W., “The Absolute Photographic Magnitude of Supernovae,” Ap.J. 88, 285-304 (1938).

Baade, W. & Edwin Hubble, “The New Stellar Systems in Sculptor and Fornax, ” PASP 51, 40-44 (1939).

Baade, Walter, “The Crab Nebula,” Ap.J. 96, 188-98 (1942).

Baade, W., “The Resolution of Messier 32, NGC 205, and the Central Region of the Andromeda Nebula,” Ap.J. 100, 137-46 (1944) [reprinted in the centennial edition Ap.J. 525, 349 (1999) with a modern commentary by Dmitri Mihalas, and also in Kenneth R. Lang & Owen Gingerich, eds., A Source Book in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1900-1975 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979), 744-49.]

Baade, W., “NGC 147 and NGC 185, Two New Members of the Local Group of Galaxies,” Ap.J. 100, 147-50 (1944).

Baade, Walter, “A Program of Extragalactic Research for the 200-inch Hale Telescope,” PASP 60, 230-34 (1948).

Spitzer, Lyman, Jr., & Walter Baade, “Stellar Populations and Collisions of Galaxies, ” Ap.J. 113, 413-18 (1951).

Baade, Walter, “A Revision of the Extra-Galactic Distance Scale,” Trans. IAU 8, 397-98 (1952) [reprinted with commentary in Lang, Kenneth R. & Owen Gingerich, eds., A Source Book in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1900-1975 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979), 750-52.]

Baade, W. & R. Minkowski, “Identification of the Radio Sources in Cassiopeia, Cygnus A and Puppis A,” Ap.J. 119, 206-214 (1954) [reprinted in the centennial edition Ap.J. 525, 538 (1999) with a modern commentary by G. Burbidge, and also in Lang, Kenneth R. & Owen Gingerich, eds., A Source Book in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1900-1975 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979), 786-91.]

Baade, W. & R. Minkowski, “On the Identification of Radio Sources,” Ap.J. 119, 215-31 (1954).

Baade, Walter, “Planetary Nebulae in M 31,” Astronomical Journal 60, 151(1955).

Baade, Walter & Henrietta H. Swope, “The Palomar Survey of Variables in M 31 (First Results),” Astronomical Journal 60, 151-52(1955).

Baade, W., G. R. Burbidge, F. Hoyle, E.M. Burbidge, R.F. Christy, & W.A. Fowler, “Supernovae and Californium 25,” PASP 68, 296-300 (1956).

Baade, W., “The Period-Luminosity Relation of the Cepheids,” PASP 68, 5-16 (1956) [Lecture on presentation of the Bruce Medal].

Baade, Walter, “Galaxies and Their Stellar Populations,” Observatory 77, 165-71 (1957) [1957 Halley Lecture].

Baade, Walter, “Galaxies and Their Stellar Populations: A Review of the Present State of Affairs,” in D.J.K. O'Connell, ed., Ricerche Astronomiche, Vol. 5, Specola Vaticana, Proceedings of a Conference at Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, May 20-28, 1957 (North-Holland, Amsterdam and Interscience, New York, 1958), pp. 3-23.

Baade, Walter, “The Population of the Galactic Nucleus and the Evidence for the Presence of an Old Population Pervading the Whole Disk of our Galaxy,” in D.J.K. O'Connell, ed., Ricerche Astronomiche, Vol. 5, Specola Vaticana, Proceedings of a Conference at Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, May 20-28, 1957 (North-Holland, Amsterdam and Interscience, New York, 1958), pp. 303-21.

Baade, W., “Large-scale Structure of Spiral Nebulae, ” in Nancy G. Roman, ed., Comparison of the Large-Scale Structure of the Galactic System with that of Other Stellar Systems, Proceedings from IAU Symposium no. 5 held in Dublin, 2 September 1955 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1958), 1-3.

Baade, Walter, “Problems in the Determination of the Distances of Galaxies,” Astronomical Journal 63, 207-10 (1958).

Baade, Walter & Henrietta H. Swope, “The Draco System, a Dwarf Galaxy,” Astronomical Journal 66, 300- 47(1961).

Baade, Walter, Evolution of Stars and Galaxies, ed. by C. Payne-Gaposchkin (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1963, 1968) [Chapter 1].

Baade, Walter & Henrietta H. Swope, “Variable Star Field 96' South Preceding the Nucleus of the Andromeda Galaxy,” Astronomical Journal 68, 435 (1963) [reprinted in the centennial edition Ap.J. 525, 985 (1999) with a modern commentary by Paul Hodge.]

Baade, W. & Halton Arp, “Positions of Emission Nebulae in M31,” Ap.J. 139, 1027-44 (1964).

Baade, Walter & Henrietta H. Swope, “Variables in the Andromeda Galaxy—Fields I and III,” Astronomical Journal 70, 212-61 (1965).

O’Connell, D.J.K., ed., Stellar Populations: Proceedings of the Conference Sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Science and the Vatican Observatory, May 20-28, 1957 (North Holland, Amsterdam & Interscience, NY, 1958).

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Other Works: Popularizations, History, etc.

Baade, Walter, “A Program of Extragalactic Research for the 200-inch Hale Telescope,” PASP 60, 230-34 (1948).

Baade, Walter, “Acceptance Speech,” Pop. Astr. 57, 489-90 (1949) [on receiving the U.S. Camera Achievement Award].

Baade, Walter, “Das Milchstrassensystem und die Grösse der Welt,” [The Milky Way System and the Size of the Universe] in Schlemmer, J., ed., Von Erde und Weltall: Eine Vortragsreihe,129-38 (Hamburg, 1956).