Indiatimes: Meet Ernst Öpik: The refugee astronomer who fled war in Europe and helped reveal where comets really come from
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Ernst Öpik
Ernst Julius Öpik was an Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist who spent the second half of his career (1948–1981) at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland. He is best known for his pioneering work on solar system dynamics, particularly of the Oort cloud and the Yarkovsky effect.
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science · Estonian astronomer and astrophysicist (1893–1985) · astronomer · astrophysicist · composer · scientist · university teacher · also Ernst Öpik, Öpik
Born 22 October 1893 · Died 10 September 1985 · Q318126
17 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 1 entry
1985· 1 entry
Died 1985-09-10.
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1976· 1 entry
Won Bruce Medal (1976).
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1975· 1 entry
Won Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1975).
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1968· 2 entries
Won Leonard Medal (1968).
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The Kepler Gold Medal from the American Association for the Advancement of Science & Meteoritical Society in 1972, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1975 and the Bruce Medal in 1976
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1960· 1 entry
Won J. Lawrence Smith Medal (1960).
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1951· 1 entry
Published a paper concerning the triple-alpha process, describing the burning of helium-4 into carbon-12 in the cores of red giant stars
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1948· 1 entry
Was offered a post in Armagh and remained there despite offers of lucrative jobs in America
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1944· 1 entry
Ahead of the approaching Red Army, in fear of a second Soviet occupation of the Baltic states
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1932· 1 entry
Postulated a theory concerning the origins of comets in the Solar System
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1922· 2 entries
Published a paper in which he estimated the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy
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Correctly predicted the frequency of craters on Mars long before they were detected by space probes
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1916· 2 entries
Published an article there in which he estimated the densities of visual binary stars
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Studied at Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow Imperial University (1912–1916).
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1911· 1 entry
Studied at Gustav Adolf Grammar School (1900–1911).
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1893· 1 entry
Born 1893-10-22.
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