Carl Keenan Seyfert
| Carl Keenan Seyfert | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 11, 1911 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | June 13, 1960 (aged 49) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. Automobile accident |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions |
McDonald Observatory Mount Wilson Observatory Case Institute Dyer Observatory |
| Education | Harvard University (Ph.D. 1936) |
| Thesis | Studies of the External Galaxies (1936) |
| Doctoral advisor | Harlow Shapley |
| Spouse | Muriel E. Mussels (m. 1935) |
| Children | 2 |
Carl Keenan Seyfert (February 11, 1911 – June 13, 1960) was an American astronomer. He is best known for his 1943 research paper on high-excitation line emission from the centers of some spiral galaxies, which are named Seyfert galaxies after him. Seyfert's Sextet, a group of galaxies, is also named after him.
Seyfert was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, then attended Harvard University, starting in 1929. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees in 1933, and his Ph.D. in astronomy in 1936. His thesis was "Studies of the External Galaxies", supervised by Harlow Shapley. The thesis dealt with colors and magnitudes of galaxies.
In 1935 Seyfert married astronomer Muriel Elizabeth Mussels, notable for her contributions to the study of ring nebulae. They had two children, daughter Gail Carol and son Carl Keenan Seyfert, Jr.
In 1936 Seyfert joined the staff of the new McDonald Observatory in Texas, where he helped get the observatory started. He stayed until 1940, working with Daniel M. Popper on the properties of faint B stars and continuing his work on colors in spiral galaxies.
In 1940 Seyfert went to Mount Wilson Observatory as a fellow with the National Research Council. He stayed until 1942, studying a class of active galaxies now called Seyfert galaxies. In 1942 he returned to Cleveland, at Case Institute of Technology, where he taught navigation to military personnel and participated in secret military research. He also carried out some astronomical research at the Warner and Swasey Observatory of the Case Institute.
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