Fritz Zwicky
Swiss astronomer who posited dark matter (1898-1974) · Switzerland · Scientists · Died at 75
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Something wrong?Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy.
A life in dates
Also in Deutsch
Photos 5
Zwicky in c. 1960
Zwicky in 1947
The memorial plaque on the house in Varna where Zwicky was born. His contributions to the understanding of the neutron stars and the dark matter are explicitly mentioned.
Presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Fritz Zwicky by Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball and General S. Chapman US Air Force, September 1949, Azusa, CaliforniaAwards
About this person
Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer. He worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where he made many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy. He was the first to propose supernovas as giant explosions at the end of a star's life, and neutron stars as the remnants left over after supernovas. In 1933, Zwicky proposed that unseen dark matter would explain the much higher mass required to explain velocity dispersion in the Coma Cluster, compared to mass calculated from luminosity data.
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