Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 – August 30, 2004) was an American
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, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...
, who worked at the
Harvard College Observatory for more than 70 years. Amongst his achievements were
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
and
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
discoveries, the "
dirty snowball
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere sur ...
" hypothesis of comets, and the invention of the
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect crewed and uncrewed spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range betw ...
.
Life
![Fred Whipple 1927](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Fred_Whipple_1927.jpg)
Whipple was born on November 5, 1906, in
Red Oak, Iowa, as the son of a farmer. An early bout with
polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe s ...
ended his ambition of being a professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player. Whipple studied at
Occidental College
Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...
in
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
, then majored in mathematics at the
University of California at Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
, graduating in 1927. Recollecting his path from mathematics to astronomy, Whipple stated in a 1978 autobiography that his "mathematics major veered
imthrough physics and finally focused on astronomy where time, space, mathematics, and physics had a common meeting ground."
After taking a class in astronomy, he enrolled at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
where he obtained his PhD in Astronomy in 1931. While in graduate school, he helped map the orbit of the then newly discovered
dwarf planet Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
. He joined
Harvard College Observatory in 1931 and studied the trajectories of meteors, confirming that they originated within the
Solar System
The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
rather than from interstellar space. In 1933, he discovered the periodic
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
36P/Whipple
36P/Whipple is a periodic comet in the Solar System. It is the lowest numbered Quasi-Hilda comet.
The comet nucleus
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nuc ...
and the
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
1252 Celestia
1252 Celestia, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid from the Palladian region, located in the central asteroid belt. It was discovered on 19 February 1933, by astronomer Fred Whipple at the Oak Ridge Observatory operated by the Center f ...
. He also discovered or co-discovered five other non-periodic comets, the first of which was C/1932 P1 Peltier-Whipple, independently discovered by the famed amateur astronomer
Leslie Peltier.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he invented a device for cutting
tinfoil into
chaff
Chaff (; ) is the dry, scaly protective casing of the seeds of cereal grains or similar fine, dry, scaly plant material (such as scaly parts of flowers or finely chopped straw). Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it. In agri ...
, a
radar countermeasure
Radar jamming and deception is a form of electronic countermeasures that intentionally sends out radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information. Concepts that blanket the ...
. He was awarded a
Certificate of Merit
The Certificate of Merit Medal was a military decoration of the United States Army that was issued between the years of 1905 and 1918. The Certificate of Merit Medal replaced the much older Certificate of Merit which was authorized by the United ...
for this in 1948. He also invented a "meteoroid bumper" or "
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect crewed and uncrewed spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range betw ...
", which protects spacecraft from impact by small particles by breaking them up.
From 1950 until 1977 he was a professor of Astronomy at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, including being the Phillips Professor of Astronomy between 1968 and 1977. During these years (in the early 1950s), he wrote a series of influential papers entitled ''A Comet Model'', published in ''
Astrophysical Journal
''The Astrophysical Journal'', often abbreviated ''ApJ'' (pronounced "ap jay") in references and speech, is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of astrophysics and astronomy, established in 1895 by American astronomers George Ellery Hale and Jame ...
''. In these papers, he proposed the "icy conglomerate" hypothesis of
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
composition (later called the "
dirty snowball
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere sur ...
" hypothesis). The basic features of this hypothesis were later confirmed; however, the exact amount (and thus the importance) of ices in a comet is an active field of research, with most of the recently obtained data pointing to a low contribution of ices to a comet's mass (dubbed the "
icy dirtball" hypothesis). He also anticipated the era of
artificial satellite
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisoto ...
s and organized the members of
Operation Moonwatch
Operation Moonwatch (also known as ''Project Moonwatch'' and, more simply, as ''Moonwatch'') was an amateur science program formally initiated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in 1956. The SAO organized Moonwatch as part of the ...
to track them. These groups were the only ones in the US prepared and ready to make observations when the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
unexpectedly launched
Sputnik I in 1957. He became director of the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is a research institute of the Smithsonian Institution, concentrating on astrophysical studies including galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, solar, earth and planetary sciences, the ...
when
Loyal Blaine Aldrich retired in 1955,
and remained in this post until 1973.
Whipple made at least one media appearance, in the science documentary film ''Target...Earth?'' (1980). He also appeared in the BBC's coverage of the Giotto encounter with Halley's Comet, in 1986.
Whipple died in 2004, aged 97.
Honors
Awards
*
President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, by US President
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
(1963)
*
Leonard Medal
The Leonard Medal honors outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields. It is awarded by the Meteoritical Society. It was established in 1962 to honor the first President of the Society, Frederick C. Leonard.
...
of the
Meteoritical Society (1970)
*Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement (1981)
*
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1983)
*
Bruce Medal of the
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1986)
*
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research. The idea for the lectureship came from then society President Harlow Shapley in 1945, ...
of the
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
(1987)
*
Whipple Award
The Fred Whipple Award, established in 1989 by the Planetary Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union, is presented to an individual who makes an outstanding contribution to the field of planetary science. The award was established to ...
of the
American Geophysical Union
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...
(1990)
Named after him
* Main-belt asteroid
1940 Whipple
1940 Whipple ( ''prov. designation'': ) is a carbonaceous background asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 2 February 1975, by the Harvard College Observatory at its George R. Aga ...
*
Whipple Observatory on
Mount Hopkins in
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
*
Whipple shield
The Whipple shield or Whipple bumper, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of hypervelocity impact shield used to protect crewed and uncrewed spacecraft from collisions with micrometeoroids and orbital debris whose velocities generally range betw ...
* Whipple House on
Great Camanoe in the
British Virgin Islands
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = Territorial song
, song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands"
, image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg
, map_caption =
, mapsize = 290px
, image_map2 = Brit ...
(not to be confused with the
John Whipple House
The John Whipple House is a historic colonial house at 1 South Green in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built in the seventeenth century, the house has been open to the public as a museum since 1899 and was the subject of some of the earliest attempts a ...
, in Ipswich, Massachusetts).
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
Bruce Medal entry with picture
Report of his death (BBC) Astronomy.com obituaryF. L. Whipple Oral History Interviewfrom the
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives is an institutional archives and library system comprising 21 branch libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. The Libraries and Archives serve Smithsonian Institution ...
George Field, "Fred Whipple", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2007)Fred Lawrence Whipple Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whipple, Fred Lawrence
20th-century American astronomers
Discoverers of asteroids
Discoverers of comets
Occidental College alumni
Planetary scientists
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni
Harvard University faculty
1906 births
2004 deaths
Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
People from Belmont, Massachusetts
People from Red Oak, Iowa
Harvard College Observatory people
Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service
Scientists from Iowa
Fellows of the American Geophysical Union
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences