Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 16:40:13 -0500
Subject: DPS Mailing #04-20: Fred Whipple (1906-2004), AGU Meeting
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1) FRED WHIPPLE (1906-2004)
2) FALL AGU MEETING
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Professor Fred Whipple died today, a few months shy of his
98th birthday. He had worked at the Harvard College Observatory
since 1931 and from 1955 to 1973 directed the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory here. He was most famous for his
theory of comets as 'dirty snowballs.' He had foreseen the
artificial satellite era and was prepared with a world-wide
tracking network, Moonwatch, when Sputnik was launched on
4 October 1957. Fred initiated SAO's ground-based observatory
on Mt. Hopkins in Arizona and was instrumental in the design
and construction of the Multiple-Mirror Telescope.
A memorial service for Fred will be announced in the fall.
In the meantime, his wife, Babbie, would prefer no phone
calls, visits, or cards. Visiting arrangements will be made
at a later date.
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FALL AGU MEETING IN SAN FRANCISCO DECEMBER 13-17 2004
The meeting website is http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm04/
Abstracts are due Sept. 1 (paper), Sept 9th (electronic).
There are 10 sessions in the planetary science section of the
Fall AGU this year, plus 15 sessions in other sections that
are co-listed as planetary.
The topics range from interiors to magnetospheres, from
Mercury to Pluto, from MER to Cassini - it will be a great
meeting!