Willem Jacob Luyten (March 7, 1899 – November 21, 1994) was a Dutch-American astronomer. March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (67th in Leap years). ... 1899 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... An astronomer or astrophysicist is a scientist whose area of research is astronomy or astrophysics. ...

He worked at Lick Observatory and Harvard College Observatory, and taught at the University of Minnesota. The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. ... Harvard College Observatory, about 1900. ... University of Minnesota, Twin Cities This article is about the oldest and largest campus of the University of Minnesota. ...

He studied the proper motions of stars and discovered many white dwarfs. The proper motion of a star is the motion of the position of the star in the sky (the change in direction in which we see it, as opposed to the radial velocity) after eliminating the improper motions of the stars, which affect their measured coordinates but are not real... The Pleiades star cluster A star is a massive body of plasma in outer space that is currently producing or has produced energy through nuclear fusion. ... White dwarf Sirius-B in x-rays A white dwarf is an astronomical object which is produced when a low or medium mass star dies. ...

He discovered some of the Sun's nearest neighbors, including Luyten's star as well as the high–proper motion star system Luyten 726-8, which was soon found to contain the remarkable flare star UV Ceti. The Sun is the star at the centre of our Solar system. ... Luytens Star (GJ 273 Recons) is a red dwarf at a distance of around 12. ... A flare star is a variable star which can undergo unpredictable dramatic increases in brightness for a few minutes or a few hours. ... Luyten 726-8 is a binary star system that is one of Earths nearest neighbors. ...

Honors

Awards

• James Craig Watson Medal (1964)
• Bruce Medal (1968)

Named after him The James Craig Watson Medal was established by the bequest of James Craig Watson, and is awarded by the US National Academy of Sciences for contributions to astronomy. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Catherine Wolfe Bruce gold medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ...

• Asteroid 1964 Luyten
• Luyten’s Star

An asteroid is a small, solid object in our Solar System, orbiting the Sun. ...

External links

• National Academy of Sciences biography