Cornelis Johannes van Houten (18 February 1920 – 24 August 2002) was a
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...
, sometimes referred to as Kees van Houten.
Early life and education
Born in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...
, he spent his entire career at
Leiden University except for a brief period (1954–1956) as research assistant at
Yerkes Observatory
Yerkes Observatory ( ) is an astronomical observatory located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, United States. The observatory was operated by the University of Chicago Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics from its founding in 1897 to 2018. Owner ...
.
Family
He married fellow astronomer Ingrid Groeneveld (who became
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld
Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld (; 21 October 1921 – 30 March 2015) was a Dutch astronomer.
Background
In a jointly credited trio with Tom Gehrels and her husband Cornelis Johannes van Houten, she was the discoverer of many thousands of astero ...
) and together they became interested in
asteroids. They had one son, Karel.
Work as astronomer
In a jointly credited trio with
Tom Gehrels
Anton M.J. "Tom" Gehrels (February 21, 1925 – July 11, 2011) was a Dutch–American astronomer, Professor of Planetary Sciences, and Astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Biography
Youth and education
Gehrels was born at Haa ...
and Ingrid, he was an extremely prolific discoverer of many thousands of asteroids. Gehrels did a sky survey using the
48-inch Schmidt telescope at
Palomar Observatory and shipped the plates to the van Houtens at
Leiden Observatory
Leiden Observatory ( nl, Sterrewacht Leiden) is an astronomical institute of Leiden University, in the Netherlands. Established in 1633 to house the quadrant of Rudolph Snellius, it is the oldest operating university observatory in the world, wit ...
, who analyzed them for new asteroids. The trio are jointly credited with several thousand discoveries. When the
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such as ...
of an asteroid is determined, it can be classified as an
Apollo asteroid
The Apollo asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after 1862 Apollo, discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth in the 1930s. They are Earth-crossing asteroids that have an orbital semi-major axis greater than that of the Earth ...
(e.g.
1862 Apollo
1862 Apollo is a stony asteroid, approximately 1.5 kilometers in diameter, classified as a near-Earth object (NEO). It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory on 24 April 1932, but lost and not recovered until ...
), an
Amor asteroid
The Amor asteroids are a group of near-Earth asteroids named after the archetype object 1221 Amor . The orbital perihelion of these objects is close to, but greater than, the orbital aphelion of Earth (i.e., the objects do not cross Earth's orbi ...
(e.g.
1221 Amor
1221 Amor is an asteroid and near-Earth object on an eccentric orbit, approximately in diameter. It is the namesake of the Amor asteroids, the second-largest subgroup of near-Earth objects. It was discovered by Eugène Delporte at the Uccle O ...
) or a
Trojan asteroid
In astronomy, a trojan is a small celestial body (mostly asteroids) that shares the orbit of a larger body, remaining in a stable orbit approximately 60° ahead of or behind the main body near one of its Lagrangian points and . Trojans can sh ...
(e.g. 55701 Ukalegon).
:Statistics of asteroids were scarcely known until the 1950s when C. J. and I. van Houten made them their lives' dedication in the Yerkes-McDonald Survey and the
Palomar-Leiden surveys . The van Houtens did not just do most of the work, but they also took care of bias problems in an exemplary manner."
Tom Gehrels
Anton M.J. "Tom" Gehrels (February 21, 1925 – July 11, 2011) was a Dutch–American astronomer, Professor of Planetary Sciences, and Astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
Biography
Youth and education
Gehrels was born at Haa ...
(1999) "Review of Comet and Asteroid Statistics", Earth, Planets and Space
''Earth, Planets and Space'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media and Terra Scientific Publishing Company on behalf of five Japanese learned societies:
* Seismological Society of Japan,
* ...
51: 1155 to 1161
He also studied the
radial velocities
The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity, also known as radial speed or range rate, of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the distance or range between the two points. It is equivalent to the vector projection o ...
of close
binary stars. He never retired, but remained active and published articles until his death, on asteroids and
eclipsing binaries
A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
. The main-belt asteroid
1673 van Houten
Events
January–March
* January 22 – Impostor Mary Carleton is hanged at Newgate Prison in London, for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.
* February 10 – Molière's ''comédie-ballet'' '' The I ...
was named in his honor.
See also
*
Ida Barney
Ida Barney (November 6, 1886 – March 7, 1982) was an American astronomer, best known for her 22 volumes of astrometric measurements on 150,000 stars. She was educated at Smith College and Yale University and spent most of her career at the Yal ...
*
Palomar–Leiden survey
The Palomar–Leiden survey (PLS) was a successful astronomical survey to study faint minor planets in a collaboration between the U.S Palomar Observatory and the Dutch Leiden Observatory, and resulted in the discovery of thousands of asteroids, ...
References
External links
Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houten, Cornelis Johannes Van
1920 births
2002 deaths
Discoverers of asteroids
*
20th-century Dutch astronomers
Leiden University alumni
Leiden University faculty
Scientists from The Hague