Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics. [Hardcover]

Donald E. Osterbrock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2001

Although less well known outside the field than Edwin Hubble, Walter Baade was arguably the most influential observational astronomer of the twentieth century. Written by a fellow astronomer deeply familiar with Baade and his work, this is the first biography of this major figure in American astronomy. In it, Donald Osterbrock suggests that Baade's greatest contribution to astrophysics was not, as is often contended, his revision of Hubble's distance and age scales for the universe. Rather, it was his discovery of two distinct stellar populations: old and young stars. This discovery opened wide the previously marginal fields of stellar and galactic evolution--research areas that would be among the most fertile and exciting in all of astrophysics for decades to come.

Baade was born, educated, and gained his early research experience in Germany. He came to the United States in 1931 as a staff member of Mount Wilson Observatory, which housed the world's largest telescope. There, he pioneered research on supernovae. With the 100-inch telescope, he studied globular clusters and the structure of the Milky Way, every step leading him closer to the population concept he discovered during the wartime years, when the skies of southern California were briefly darkened. Most Mount Wilson astronomers were working on weapons-development crash programs devoted to bringing Baade's native country to its knees, while he, formally an enemy alien in their midst, was confined to Los Angeles County but had almost unlimited use of the most powerful telescope in the world.

After his great discovery, Baade continued his research with the new 200-inch telescope at Palomar. Always respected and well liked, he became even more famous among astronomers as they shifted their research to the fields he had opened. Publicity-shy and seemingly unconcerned with publication, however, Baade's celebrity remained largely within the field. This accomplished biography at last introduces Baade--and his important work--to a wider public, including the newest generation of skywatchers.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Baade was perhaps the preeminent observational astronomer in the middle third of the 20th century. He put to best use the many hours he spent with the giant reflecting telescopes at the Mt. Wilson and Mt. Palomar observatories and made the crucial discovery that there are two stellar populations in the universe old stars and new stars. This, in turn, allowed astrophysicists to work out coherent theories of stellar and galactic evolution. Baade was on friendly terms with nearly all of the leaders in the world astronomical community, although he was a lifelong loyal citizen of Germany, even during the Nazi era. Osterbrock, himself a distinguished astrophysicist and author of Yerkes Observatory, 1892-1950, knew Baade personally and has written a solid biography of him. His descriptions of Baade's work are at a moderately technical level; readers with reasonable knowledge of modern astronomy will benefit most from this work. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Jack W. Weigel, formerly with Univ. of Michigan Lib., Ann Arbor
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Although an exactingly accurate astronomer, Baade was not well known by the public, but he was a superstar in the profession and well warrants a full-fledged biography. Written by one of his proteges, this is a solid survey of Baade's major achievements over the course of his career, which began at the Hamburg Observatory. There Baade observed solar eclipses--old science to him. He was more interested in the research frontiers of that time, such as discerning the size and shape of the Milky Way galaxy. To that end, Baade moved to the Mount Wilson Observatory in California, where he became the expert on "globular clusters" of stars. Osterbrock details the incremental steps by which Baade advanced toward the breakthrough in 1944 for which astronomers honor him: that stars fall into two age categories, ancient and very young, implying that the stars, the galaxies, and the universe have an evolutionary history. Larger collections will want Baade's biography. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069104936X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691049366
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,306,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a detailed biography, August 2, 2009

By 

LB (Pasadena, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walter Baade: A Life in Astrophysics. (Hardcover)

Walter Baade is a greater astronomer who worked at the Mount Wilson Observatory during its heydays. He is most famous for discoverying that there are two different stellar populations. This is very important for our understanding of
galaxy formation and evolution. Throughout his life Baade had remained a citizen of Germany, though he spent most of his productive years in America. This biography was written by D. Osterbrock, who is himself an astrophysicist and had a few encounters with Baade when he was alive, and the author did a lot of research on the archives preserved in the Huntington library. The book provides a lot of insights on the development of astronomy from 1920s through 1950s. The great strength of the book is that the author himself understand astronomy very well, so his discussion of the technical problems faced by Baade and his contemporary astronomers is very clear and to the point.

A drawback of this book is that it is too narrowly focused. It gives the impression that God give a single purpose for Baade's life, which is to discover the two populations. The author try to connect everything Baade did from the beginning of his career to this most important discovery, presumably to show that this is not a discovery by chance but has been prepared by a whole life's experience. That may be the case, but it makes the book boring to read, as there is not any suspension leading to this discovery. Also, the author is apparently very sympathetic to Baade's character or attitude to work, and as a contrast he compares it at every opportunity with the other major astronomers at the time, especially Shapley, Zwicky and Hubble, all of whom he doesn't like. This in itself is not bad as it does give a more vivid impression on the relationship between these people, but in my opinion he repeated it too many times.