Fred L. Whipple

An astronomer, Whipple helped figure out the orbit of a newly discovered planet: Pluto. During World War II Whipple helped develop "chaff" -- flakes of metal designed to be dropped from planes to fool enemy radar. After the war, as director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 1955, he correctly predicted that the age of artificial satellites was imminent, and set up a globe-spanning network of amateur astronomers to monitor them. They were ready when Russia's Sputnik was launched in 1957, and were able to track it as it orbited. But Whipple is best known as the researcher who correctly figured out that comets are "dirty snowballs", which was proven by a probe to Halley's comet in 1986. "Fred Whipple was one of those rare individuals who affected our lives in many ways," says Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Whipple never tired of comets: at 95, he came out of retirement to work as a researcher for NASA's Comet Nucleus Tour, a probe to study comets. The probe was lost shortly after launch in 2002. Whipple died August 30 at age 97. From This is True for 29 August 2004 Suggestions for further reading: Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides) by Dinah L. Moche Amazon Price: $13.57 Customer Review: This allows the reader to know a bit more about Astronomy by having questions after each chapter, which is nice.   Rocks from Space: Meteorites and Meteorite Hunters (Astronomy) by O. Richard Norton Amazon Price: $23.10 Customer Review: The book is wonderful and the condition was excellent, this book had a plastic cover over the paperback front and rear covers that kept it in very good condition (old Library book). I wish it had been a second addition it would have made it that much...   The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: How a Stone-Age Comet Changed the Course of... by Richard Firestone, Allen West, Simon Warwick-Smith Amazon Price: $13.60 Customer Review: For content I give this book five stars, however I did think it was a tad long and could've been about 100 pages shorter. That said, the information presented is radical and remarkable. The authors present the evidence for a massive comet bombardment...   Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars: Space Poems and Paintings by Douglas Florian Amazon Price: $10.88 Customer Review: My six-year-old daughter and I love this and all of the other Douglas Florian poetry books. The illustrations are terrific, and the poems are fun and educational at the same time.   Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix ... by John S. Lewis Amazon Price: $13.68 Customer Review: This is not a cook book for serving up a turnkey interplanetary civilization, but its ideas will provide food for thought. The book covers a broad range of subjects providing: historical perspectives; descriptions of the Moon, Mars, and ...   Newsfeed display by CaRP

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