Fritz+Zwicky

= Fritz Zwicky 1898-1974  "I have a good idea every two years. You name the topic, I will bring the idea !" =
 * __Biography__**

Fritz Zwicky was born in Bulgaria in 1898. He moved to Switzerland at age six to live with his grandparents. His interests were in math and physics, and when he was 16 he studied at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Zwicky moved to the United States in 1925 to study at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He worked under Robert Millikan and studied the quantum mechanics of atoms and metals. While doing this he became very interested in Astrophysics and ended up teaching the subject at Caltech from 1942-1968. **(1)** Einstein also taught here at the time, and Zwicky has been referred to as “Einstein’s Student”. He did research work from the [|Mount Wilson Observatory] on Mount Wilson near Pasadena, where Caltech is located. He died in 1974 at age 75 (6 days shy of his 76th birthday) from a massive heart failure. **(3)** He is remembered for his important discoveries that contribute to astrophysics, as well as his controversial language and challenging personality.


 * __Infamous Persona__**

"I have a good idea every two years. You name the topic, I will bring the idea! " **(6)** Fritz Zwicky once said this to the President of The California Institute of Technology, [|Robert Millikan], whom he worked under. It was not the first time and certainly not the last that he could be quoted saying something controversial and rude to his colleagues. Fritz Zwicky was brilliant, and he knew it. He had a strong personality and did not really care what others thought of him, especially his colleagues at Caltech. He is famous for calling them "spherical bastards" because they were "bastards whichever way you look at them". **(4)** Zwicky's scientific accomplishments have flown under the radar for many years. Nancy Hathaway stated that "his contributions have sometimes been dwarfed by his personality." **(5)** He was known for his difficult personality and strong urge to start any possible argument with a colleague he could think of. One prominent astronomer even said "Had he not been such and acerbic character, he would have gone down as the greatest astronomer in the twentieth century." **(5)** . What were Zwicky's under respected accomplishments? He had many.
 * __Scientific Contributions and Accomplishments__**
 * Zwicky was one of the first astronomers to consider that gravity is bound together galaxies in clusters. He measured cluster masses by observing galaxy motions and applying [|Newton's laws of motion and gravitation] . **(7)**
 * Zwicky proceeded to use gravitational lensing to estimate large masses (and dark matter) in clusters of galaxies. Gravitational lensing was first considered by Albert Einstein when he said that stars at great distances could act as a lens by bending and focusing the light from a more distant star. Zwicky later proved that this concept was not feasible with stars alone, but instead whole galaxies. He believed that the massive galaxies could distort light rays from distant objects and from them we could "weigh" the galaxies. **(5)** Now, gravitational lensing is a popular way to measure the parameters of the cosmos and to reveal faint, distant objects that would not be able to be seen otherwise. **(****2)**


 * In 1933 at a scientific conference, Zwicky and Walter Baade developed a triple hypothesis that after the explosion of a star, or supernova, cosmic rays and neutron stars developed. These terms were all new to the science world and he and Walter Baade are given credit for them. Their hypothesis was correct but was not determined correct until a later time. This was a tremendous discovery for their time because neutrons had only been discovered a year before **(2).**


 * Coined the term "supernova". A supernova is the violent explosion of a star that ultimately ends its life. The star begins to devour all the hydrogen in its core and begins to burn helium into a [|red supergiant]. When the helium escapes, the star collapses and the temprature rises incredibly. Subatomic particles that are almost massless send a shock wave into space and it reverberates through the star and it detonates. **(5)**


 * Predicted the existence of neutron stars with [|Walter Baade.] Neutron stars are so tiny that they were not actually proven to exist until 1967 by Jocelyn Bell by a discovery from a giant radio antenna linked to wires strung parallel to the ground. Neutron stars form on the heels of a supernova explosion. The leftover stellar material would be crushed into a small volume, spin faster and faster, and its magnetic field would intensify until it became essentially a giant magnet. Jets of electrons would spurt out of the magnetic poles emitting various kinds of electromagnetic radiation including invisible light. **(5)**


 * Coined the term "dark matter" in 1933. Fritz Zwicky was the first person to ever consider the amount of gravity necessary to prevent distant galaxies from spinning off in all directions. He realized that the amount necessary was a great deal more than we could see through the lenses of telescopes. He realized that something else had to exist in the sky. It was not really recognized until Vera Rubin's research in 1977 that found that galaxies require much more mass than what is visible.

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 * He proposed that low-mass galaxies exist and verified this by discovering the first dwarf galaxies with the 100-inch Mt. wilson telescope. **(6)** Shown Below


 * To this day, Fritz Zwicky holds the record for most supernovas ever discovered by one person at a whopping number of 122. **(2)**

Fritz Zwicky was a brilliant scientist in the 20th century. His contributions have been extremely beneficial to the world of science. Without his accomplishments we would not have as great of an idea as to how our own solar system was formed. We know what kind of telescopes and techniques (such as gravitational lensing) are successful when it comes to understand foreign information such as the weight of distant mass and galaxies. Though we do not know exactly what "dark matter" is, we understand that it makes up a majority of our galaxy and other galaxies. Zwicky's brusque personality unfortunately made his great accomplishments appear overshadowed and underrated. Those who do the research and look into what he actually discovered, realize that Zwicky was an extraordinary scientist who helped shape our understanding of Astronomy today.

__**Sources Used**__

__Websites:__


 * 1)** http://www.nndb.com/people/307/000206686/
 * 2)** []
 * 3)** http://www.swemorph.com/zwicky.html//

//__Printed Books:__


 * 4)** Greene, Brian. // The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality //. New York: A.A. Knopf, 2004. Print.
 * 5)** Hathaway, Nancy. // The Friendly Guide to the Universe //. New York: Viking, 1994. Print.
 * 6)** Ferris, Timothy. //The Whole Shebang: a State-of-the-universe(s) Report //. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Print.
 * 7)** Bennett, Jeffrey O. //The Cosmic Perspective//. San Francisico, CA: Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2009. Print.