Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2019

Jan Hendrik Oort

Master of the Galactic System

  • Presents a richly illustrated biography of one of the most influential astronomers of the 20th century
  • Based on extensive archival studies, including documents in Dutch
  • Written by a student of the subject, who wrote authoritative papers in similar areas of research

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library (ASSL, volume 459)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xx
  2. Growing Up in Oegstgeest

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 1-22
  3. Kapteyn and Groningen

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 23-68
  4. Stars of High Velocity

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 69-116
  5. Via Yale to Leiden

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 117-156
  6. Rotation of the Galaxy; Marriage

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 157-200
  7. Galactic Structure and Dynamics

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 201-238
  8. The Oort Limit and Galaxy Photometry

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 239-276
  9. Professor and Adjunct-Director

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 277-326
  10. World War II: The Watershed

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 327-374
  11. Opening Up New Avenues

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 375-420
  12. Spiral Structure, Interstellar Medium and the Crab

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 421-470
  13. Dwingeloo, ESO, the Vatican and the Cross-Antenna

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 471-516
  14. Galactic Structure and the Dwingeloo Telescope

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 517-562
  15. Westerbork, Retirement and Beyond

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 563-596
  16. The Last Horizon

    • Pieter C. van der Kruit
    Pages 597-620
  17. Back Matter

    Pages 621-726

About this book

This book is the first thorough and overdue biography of one of the giants of science in the twentieth century, Jan Hendrik Oort. His fundamental contributions had a lasting effect on the development of our insight and a profound influence on the international organization and cooperation in his area of science and on the efforts and contribution of his native country.

This book aims at describing Oort's life and works in the context of the development of his branch of science and as a tribute to a great scientist in a broader sense. The astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort from the Netherlands was founder of studies of the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way Galaxy, initiator of radioastronomy and the European Southern Observatory, and an important contributor to many areas of astronomy, from the study of comets to the universe on the largest scales.

Reviews

“Massive, expensive tomes bound mainly for libraries. … No doubt, it offers invaluable insights and documentation which will be welcomed by specialists.” (David H. DeVorkin, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 51 (3), 2020)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Pieter C. van der Kruit

About the author

Pieter C. van der Kruit is the Jacobus C. Kapteyn Honorary Professor of Astronomy at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute in Groningen, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in astronomy from Leiden University in 1971 under Jan Hendrik Oort. He held a prestigious Carnegie postdoctoral Fellowship at the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories in Pasadena, California, before moving to the University of Groningen in 1975. He has held visiting positions at numerous institutions, including the Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia; the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, UK; the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA; the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, Chile, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain, and the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California.

His research concerns structure and dynamics of disks in galaxies. He has published over 160 papers, more than half as lead or sole author, contributed substantially to over 20 more, and authored or edited six books. In Groningen he taught introductory astronomy and advanced level courses on structure and dynamics of galaxies for many years, the latter also at a Saas-Fee winter school in Switzerland and in university curricula in Porto, Portugal, in Santiago, Chile and in Beijing, China. He is a former director of the Kapteyn Institute and has been a member and often chairman of numerous national and international boards and committees, notably President of Council of the European Southern Observatory and chairman of the Board for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array ALMA.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access