Astronomer Whipple Dead At Age 97

cwaldrip writes "Reuters reports 'Fred Whipple, an astronomer who originated the idea that comets were comprised of ice and mineral dust, has died at the age of 97.' Comets being dirty ice is so accepted today, it's hard to think of alternatives other than solid rock. What alternate theories of cometary composition have there been?"

Comments

Wikipedia entry on Whipple

[Ianoo]

Some appropriate biographical text from Wikipedia:

Fred Lawrence Whipple (November 5, 1906 - August 30, 2004) was an American astronomer. He is best known for writing an influential paper in Astrophysical Journal in 1950 in which he proposed the now-confirmed "dirty snowball" theory of comet composition (although he originally used the term "icy conglomerate"). In 1933, he discovered the periodic comet 36P/Whipple and the asteroid 1252 Celestia. 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 Two, he was credited with first proposing the use of chaff to confuse enemy radar. In 1955 he became director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), remaining in this post until 1973. In 1983 he won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1986 he was awarded the Bruce Medal by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and in 1987 he was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship by the American Astronomical Society. Asteroid 1940 Whipple is named after him, as is the Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins in Arizona.

A fine scientist who made contributions to many areas of his field and will be remembered after most of us have long been forgotten. May he rest in peace.

Crackpots

[FlipmodePlaya]

As with all science, a few people have come up with crazy theories that differ from this. For instance, James McCanney. A debunking of his stuff can be found here.

Alternative composition

[Anonymous Coward]

What alternate theories of cometary composition have there been?

Actually, if I remember correctly Mr. Whipple was famous for hypothesizing that comets are made of soft, absorbent layers that one couldn't help resist the urge to squeeze.

Historical Theories of Hairy Stars (Comets)

[Craig Milo Rogers]

In Roman times, one theory was that comets were (or contained) the souls of dead people, rising to heaven. Not just any old dead person, of course, but important people, such as Roman emperors, on their way to become gods. Or, perhaps a comet might carry a soul *from* heaven to earth: consider the star of Bethlehem, now believed to be a comet, in one prominent religion.

Another theory, related to that same religion, is that a comet is what an angel looks like from a distance.

In Greek times, comets were thought to be a phenomenon of gases in the atmosphere, much like meteors (the word "meteor" derives from "high in the air").

The word "comet" derives from "coma", meaning hair: a hairy star. (The modern English usage for "coma" came about because the continuing growth of hair was observed to be one of the few obvious changes in a person in a coma.) Early observers might not have known what the hair came from, but it (a comet's tail) was clearly hair of some form.

http://www.skyscript.co.uk/comets.html
http://www.eso.org/outreach/info-events/hale-bopp/ comet-history-1.html

Was he the inventor of the Whipple Bumper as well

[LWATCDR]

I just wonder. The Whipple bumper has been used for many years to shield space craft from micro meteors. I wonder if he had a hand in that as well?

Re:Was he the inventor of the Whipple Bumper as we

[Craig Milo Rogers]

Yup, same Whipple. He also co-invented anti-radar chaff (or, at least, the means of producing it) in World War II.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/289/548 0/728