Background
Babcock, Horace W. was born on September 13, 1912 in Pasadena, California, United States. Son of Harold Delos and Mary Geddie (Henderson) Babcock.
Babcock, Horace W. was born on September 13, 1912 in Pasadena, California, United States. Son of Harold Delos and Mary Geddie (Henderson) Babcock.
Bachelor of Science, California Institute of Technology, 1934. Doctor of Philosophy, University California, 1938. Honorary Doctor of Science, University Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, 1965.
Babcock invented and built a number of astronomical instruments, and in 1953 was the first to propose the idea of adaptive optics. He specialized in spectroscopy and the study of magnetic fields of stars. He proposed the Babcock Model, a theory for the magnetism of sunspots.
During World World War II, he was engaged in radiation work at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Caltech.
After the war he began a productive collaboration with his father. His undergraduate studies were at Caltech and his doctorate from University of California, Berkeley.
Babcock"s doctoral thesis contained one of the earliest indications of dark matter. He reported measurements of the rotation curve for Andromeda which suggested that the mass-to-luminosity ratio increases radially.
He, however, attributed it to either absorption of light within the galaxy or modified dynamics in the outer portions of the spiral and not to any form of missing matter.
He was director of the Palomar Observatory for Caltech from 1964 to 1978. PASP 116 (2004) 290 (not available online yet, see ) Preston, George West. (2004). "Obituary: Horace Welcome Babcock (1912–2003)".
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 116 (817): 290–294.
Bibcode:2004PASP.116.290P. doi:10.1086/382664.
Member National Academy of Sciences (councilor 1973-1976), Royal Astronomical Society (associate), Societé Royale des Sciences de Liege (correspondent member), American Philosophical Society, American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Astronomical Society (councilor 1956-1958, George Ellery Hale award 1990), Astronomical Society Pacific, International Astronomical Union.
Married 1st M. B. Anderson in 1940, one son one daughter. Married 2nd Elizabeth M. Aubrey in 1958.