BOSTON (Reuters) - Fred Whipple, an astronomer who originated the idea that
comets were comprised of ice and mineral dust, has died at the age of 97.
A spokesman for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where
Whipple had served as director for almost two decades, said he died at a
Cambridge, Massachusetts hospital on Monday.
Whipple's "icy conglomerates" theory explained why some comets arrived at
destinations earlier or later than predicted and refuted a notion widely
held in the early 1950s that comets were comprised of sand held together by
gravity.
Ultimately, close-up pictures of Halley's comet proved Whipple's "dirty
snowball" theory correct.
"Fred Whipple was one of those rare individuals who affected our lives in
many ways. He predicted the coming age of satellites, he revolutionized the
study of comets," Charles Alcock, director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, said.
The American astronomer also influenced space flight by inventing the
Whipple Shield, a thin outer skin of metal on spacecrafts to prevent damage
from meteors. The mechanism explodes a meteor on contact and improved
versions are still in use.
Received on Tue Aug 31 16:21:03 2004