S. B. Nicholson
| Seth Barnes Nicholson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 12, 1891 Springfield, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | July 2, 1963 (aged 71) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | astronomy |
| Institutions | Mount Wilson Observatory |
| Alma mater | Drake University |
| Notable awards | Bruce Medal (1963) |
Seth Barnes Nicholson (November 12, 1891 – July 2, 1963) was an American astronomer.
Nicholson was born in Springfield, Illinois, and was raised in rural Illinois. He was educated at Drake University where he became interested in astronomy.
In 1914, at the University of California's Lick Observatory, while observing the recently discovered Jupiter moon Pasiphaë, he discovered a new one, Sinope, whose orbit he computed for his Ph.D. thesis in 1915.
He spent his entire career at Mount Wilson Observatory, where he discovered three more Jovian moons: Lysithea and Carme in 1938 and Ananke in 1951, as well as a Trojan asteroid, 1647 Menelaus, and computed orbits of several comets and of Pluto.
Sinope, Lysithea, Carme and Ananke were simply designated as "Jupiter IX", "Jupiter X", "Jupiter XI" and "Jupiter XII". They were not given their present names until 1975. Nicholson himself declined to propose names.
At Mt. Wilson, his main assignment concerned solar activity and he produced for decades annual reports on sunspot activity. He also made a number of eclipse expeditions to measure the brightness and temperature of the Sun's corona.
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