Piet van de Kamp (December 26, 1901, Kampen – May 18, 1995, Amsterdam), known as Peter van de Kamp in the United States, was a Dutch astronomer who lived most of his life in the United States. He was professor of astronomy at Swarthmore College and director of the college's Sproul Observatory from 1937 until 1972. He specialized in astrometry, studying parallax and proper motions of stars. He came to public attention in the 1960s when he announced that Barnard's star had a planetary system based on observed "wobbles" in of its motion, but this is now known to be spurious.
Read more about Peter Van De Kamp: Life, The Barnard's Star Affair, Music, Later Life and Death, Awards and Honors
Famous quotes containing the word van:
“Physics investigates the essential nature of the world, and biology describes a local bump. Psychology, human psychology, describes a bump on the bump.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)