Oort constants [SEP] named after
Oort constants
The Oort constants (discovered by Jan Oort) formula_1 and formula_2 are empirically derived parameters that characterize the local rotational properties of our galaxy, the Milky Way, in the following manner:
where formula_4 and formula_5 are the rotational velocity and distance to the Galactic center, respectively, measured at the position of the Sun, and and are the velocities and distances at other positions in our part of the galaxy. As derived below, and depend only on the motions and positions of stars in the solar neighborhood.
, 1987
Named after him
- Asteroid 1691 Oort
- Oort Cloud
- Oort constants of galactic structure
- Oort building, the current building of the Leiden Observatory
Memberships
- Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1937–1943, 1945–)
Upon his death, Nobel Prize winning astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar remarked, "The great oak of Astronomy has been felled, and we are lost without its shadow."
References.
References Biographical materials.
- Blaauw, Adriaan, Biographical