Jacobus Kapteyn
Jacobus Kapteyn | |
|---|---|
Jacobus Kapteyn. Painting by Jan Veth (1921). | |
| Born | Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn 19 January 1851 |
| Died | 18 June 1922 (aged 71) |
| Alma mater | University of Utrecht |
| Known for | discovery of evidence for galactic rotation |
| Awards | Bruce Medal 1913 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (19 January 1851 – 18 June 1922) was a Dutch astronomer. He carried out extensive studies of the Milky Way. He found that the apparent movement of stars was not randomly distributed but had two preferential directions: the two star streams. This discovery was later reinterpreted as evidence for galactic rotation. Kapteyn also suggested that these stellar velocities could be used to find the amount of non-luminous matter in the galaxy, which his student, Jan Oort, measured in 1932, referring to it as "invisible matter".