Kirkwood's most significant contribution came from his study of asteroid orbits. When arranging the then-growing number of discovered asteroids by their distance from the Sun, he noted several gaps,[3] now named Kirkwood gaps in his honor, and associated these gaps with orbital resonances with the orbit of Jupiter. Further, Kirkwood also suggested a similar dynamic was responsible for Cassini Division in Saturn's rings, as the result of a resonance with one of Saturn's moons. In the same paper, he was the first to correctly posit that the material in meteor showers is cometary debris.
Kirkwood also identified a pattern relating the distances of the planets to their rotation periods, which was called Kirkwood's Law. This discovery earned Kirkwood an international reputation among astronomers; he was dubbed "the American Kepler" by Sears Cook Walker, who claimed that Kirkwood's Law proved the widely held Solar Nebula Theory. The "Law" has since become discredited as new measurements of planetary rotation periods have shown that the pattern doesn't hold.
Altogether he wrote 129 publications, including three books. The asteroid 1951 AT was named 1578 Kirkwood in his honor and so was the lunar impact crater Kirkwood, as well as Indiana University's Kirkwood Observatory. He is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington, Indiana, where Kirkwood Avenue is named for him.
"Daniel Kirkwood papers, 1864-1895" finding aid for the collection at the Indiana University Archives, Bloomington
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Biography of Daniel Kirkwood
October 24, 2023
daniel, kirkwood, footballer, chairman, everton, footballer, born, 1867, scottish, footballer, kirkwood, september, 1814, june, 1895, american, astronomer, born, 1814, september, 1814harford, county, marylanddiedjune, 1895, 1895, aged, riverside, californianat. For the footballer and chairman of Everton F C see Daniel Kirkwood footballer born 1867 For the Scottish footballer see Dan Kirkwood Daniel Kirkwood September 27 1814 June 11 1895 was an American astronomer Daniel KirkwoodDaniel KirkwoodBorn 1814 09 27 September 27 1814Harford County MarylandDiedJune 11 1895 1895 06 11 aged 80 Riverside CaliforniaNationalityAmericanAlma materYork County Academy York PAKnown forDiscovery of the Kirkwood GapsScientific careerFieldsastronomy mathematicsInstitutionsUniversity of DelawareIndiana UniversityJefferson CollegeStanford UniversityKirkwood was born in Harford County Maryland to John and Agnes nee Hope Kirkwood 1 He graduated in mathematics from the York County Academy in York Pennsylvania in 1838 After teaching there for five years he became Principal of the Lancaster High School in Lancaster Pennsylvania and after another five years he moved on to become Principal of the Pottsville Academy in Pottsville Pennsylvania In 1851 he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society 2 The same year he became Professor of Mathematics at Delaware College and in 1856 Professor of Mathematics at Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana where he stayed until his retirement in 1886 with the exception of two years 1865 1867 at Jefferson College in Canonsburg Pennsylvania Kirkwood s most significant contribution came from his study of asteroid orbits When arranging the then growing number of discovered asteroids by their distance from the Sun he noted several gaps 3 now named Kirkwood gaps in his honor and associated these gaps with orbital resonances with the orbit of Jupiter Further Kirkwood also suggested a similar dynamic was responsible for Cassini Division in Saturn s rings as the result of a resonance with one of Saturn s moons In the same paper he was the first to correctly posit that the material in meteor showers is cometary debris Kirkwood also identified a pattern relating the distances of the planets to their rotation periods which was called Kirkwood s Law This discovery earned Kirkwood an international reputation among astronomers he was dubbed the American Kepler by Sears Cook Walker who claimed that Kirkwood s Law proved the widely held Solar Nebula Theory The Law has since become discredited as new measurements of planetary rotation periods have shown that the pattern doesn t hold In 1891 at age 77 he became a lecturer in astronomy at Stanford University He died in Riverside California in 1895 Altogether he wrote 129 publications including three books The asteroid 1951 AT was named 1578 Kirkwood in his honor and so was the lunar impact crater Kirkwood as well as Indiana University s Kirkwood Observatory He is buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Bloomington Indiana where Kirkwood Avenue is named for him Kirkwood was a cousin of Iowa governor Samuel Jordan Kirkwood who became United States Secretary of the Interior under President James A Garfield and President Chester A Arthur 4 Further reading EditFrank K Edmondson Daniel Kirkwood Dean of American Astronomers Mercury Magazine publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific vol 29 no 3 2000 pp 26 33 J Donald Fernie 1999 The American Kepler The New Scientist vol 87 no 5 pg 398 References Edit Hockey Thomas 2009 The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers Springer Publishing ISBN 978 0 387 31022 0 Retrieved August 22 2012 APS Member History search amphilsoc org Retrieved 2021 04 14 Kirkwood Daniel 1866 On the Theory of Meteors in Proceedings of American Association for the Advancement of Science for 1866 pp 8 14 Clark Dan Elbert 1917 Samuel Jordan Kirkwood Iowa City Iowa Iowa State Historical Society p 8 External links EditWorks by Daniel Kirkwood at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Daniel Kirkwood at Internet Archive Daniel Kirkwood at Find a Grave Daniel Kirkwood papers 1864 1895 finding aid for the collection at the Indiana University Archives Bloomington nbsp Wikisource has original text related to this article Biography of Daniel Kirkwood Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Daniel Kirkwood amp oldid 1176642090, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
