From: awootten@polaris.cv.nrao.edu (Al Wootten)
Subject: Jan Oort dies.
Organization: National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Distribution: sci.astro
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:06:45 GMT

I had not seen here any news of the passing of Jan Oort, so I post
a note from Dr. G. Westerhout of the USNO which appeared here.

    Professor Dr. Jan H. Oort dies

On 5 November 1992, at the age of 92, one of the greatest
Astronomers of this century died in Holland after a fall. Prof. Dr.
Jan H. Oort had moved into a care facility with his wife 
only 6 months ago. 

Professor Oort was most famous for his work on galactic structure
and dynamics. His 1927 paper inventing Oort's Constants (which he
always modestly called constants A and B) was the major
breakthrough in our understanding of galactic rotation. He worked
tirelessly on that and many other fields of endeavor during his
long career. He was responsible for the prominent place of Holland
in radio astronomy, he was the force behind the establishment of
the European Southern Observatory. As General Secretary,
President, and Commission President, he shaped the International
Astronomical Union. He was director of the Leiden Observatory from
1945 to 1970, when he retired at the age of 70. He remained fully
active until about 3 years ago, and even at age 85 used to ride
his bicycle the 5 miles to the Observatory several times a week.

His early education was under Kapteyn, and his Ph.D. in 1926 was
with Van Rhyn, explaining the `High velocity stars.' Among other
things, he worked on the determination of K_sub_z, and was very
active in discusslng proper motions and the accuracy of the
fundamental proper motion system. He had many contacts with the
USNO (see 1951 paper on the precession constant with H.R.
Morgan). Oort's name is also attached to the Oort Cloud of comets;
he worked on the origin of comets for many years after 1945. He
was rosponsible for the identlfication of the Crab Nebula with
the supernova of 1054 and discussed the polarization and
continuum emission of the Crab. Oort also discussed extensively
the galactic centre, the evidence for a very massive core, and
the expanding neutral hydrogen features. He was responsible for
the discovery of the high-velocity neutral hydrogen clouds at
high galactic latitudes. In later years, Oort was active in
lnterpreting the radio source distribution in trying to
understand the density of the universe and the origin of
galaxies.

Professor Oort will be mourned both by the many astronomers who
grew up under his tutelage and the astronomlcal community in
general, especially those in the field of galactic structure and
dynamics, who built on his pioneering work and benefited from his
continued insights and his many personal communications.


                              Gart Westerhout
                                   11/6/92

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