Nityananda, Rajaram
(2015)
Classics: Bulletin of the astronomical institutes of the Netherlands.
Resonance : Journal of Science Education, 20 (10).
pp. 945-950.
ISSN 0973-712X
Abstract
We have chosen extracts from two of Oort’s most famous papers for the Classics section of this issue. The earlier one, published in 1927, is on determining the rotation of stars around the centre of our galaxy, and its variation with distance. The principle of this
method is explained in some detail in the article, ‘Discovering the Rotation of our own Galaxy’ (this issue, p. 869). You can see that Oort just writes down the corresponding formulae in his paper. What is worth learning from this paper is the rather confused
situation at that time, with many ideas floating around, proposed by famous astronomers like Kapetyn, Jeans, Lindblad and Shapley. Oort is meticulous in citing his sources, but he also quickly disposes of untenable ideas, though in rather mild language. This leads
him to his model, of a differentially rotating disc embedded in a large sphericallysymmetric
and non-rotating system – pretty much the model today! What we have not reproduced is the detailed discussion which follows the observational material analysis
of errors, and fitting of the model
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