Maarten SchmidtBorn 28 Dec 1929. Dutch-born American astronomer who in 1963 discovered quasars (quasi-stellar objects). The hydrogen spectrum of these starlike objects shows a huge redshift, which indicates they are more distant than normal stars, travelling away at greater speed, and are among the oldest objects observed. In turn, this indicates they existed only when the universe was very young, and provides evidence against the steady state theory of Fred Hoyle. Schmidt is currently seeking to find the redshift above which there are no quasars, and he also studies x-ray and gamma ray sources.« |
