Walter S Adams
Walter Adams was born in Syria on December 20th
1876, Adams was the son of American missionaries. After receiving his
bachelor's degree at Dartmouth College, he accompanied his astronomy professor,
Edwin B. Frost, to Yerkes Observatory. After two years there he worked with
Yerkes director, George Ellery Hale, to help establish the Mt. Wilson Solar
Observatory.
His spectroscopic studies of the sun, done with Hale and
others, led to the discovery that the sunspots are regions of lower
temperatures and stronger magnetic fields than their surroundings.
He shared with Theodore Dunham, Jr. in the discoveries of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus. Adams identified Sirius B as the
first white dwarf star known, and his measurement of its gravitational redshift
was taken as confirming evidence for the general theory of relativity.
Walter Adams died on May 11th 1956.
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