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Gerard Kuiper

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Astronomer

The Resume

    (December 7, 1905-December 24, 1973)
    Born in Tuitjenhorn, Netherlands
    Last name rhymes with 'wiper' and 'hyper'
    Became a US citizen (1937)
    Discovered Uranus's moon Miranda (1948) and Neptune's moon Nereid (1949)
    Namesake for the Kuiper Belt
    Namesake for the American Astronomical Society's Kuiper Award given for lifetime achievement in planetary science

Why he might be annoying:

    Ironically, he predicted that the Kuiper Belt would be largely empty, since he thought asteroids and comets that formed there would be swept clear by Pluto's gravitational influence.
    The name of the Kuiper Belt is somewhat controversial, since Frederick Leonard (1930) and Kenneth Edgeworth (1943) had both predicted the possibility of trans-Plutonian objects before Kuiper did.
    One of his colleagues said, 'He was very difficult to work for, or even in the same building with.'
    One of his former graduate students said, 'Kuiper had very little interest in our education. We were there to work as assistants.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He had extraordinarily sharp eyesight, and could see with the naked eye stars four times fainter than ones visible to most people.
    He helped identify landing places on the Moon for the Apollo program.
    He has craters on the Moon, Mars and Mercury named after him.
    He is considered a father of planetary science for promoting a multidisciplinary approach to studying the solar system.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 44 Votes: 43.18% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 11 Votes: 18.18% Annoying