Bart Bok Bio

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Richard Fuerst

Mr. Percival

DE Astronomy

22 May 2012

Bart Bok

            Bartholomeus Bok or "Bart Bok", for short, is known for his studies that determined the shape of our galaxy and how stars are formed; the dark, nebulous globules that house this star development have been named "Bok Globules" after their discoverer. Before we get into Bok's scientific achievements it is imperative that we explore his upbringing and the factors that would shape this essential figure in our twentieth-century understanding of the Milky Way.

            Bart Bok was born in Hoorn on April. 29,1906, but moved to Haarlem when his father was relocated due to his father's position as a sergeant-major in the Dutch army. The events following World War I saw that young Bok would move from Haarlem to The Hague, an area reknown for its education of  fledgling physicists and  budding mathematicians. It was in  Boy Scouts that Bok acquired his interest in astronomy, which began when he realized he could not identify a single star in the nighttime sky. From then on he started delving deeper into the field of astronomy and entered the University of Leiden in 1924 where he built upon Harlow Shapley's work - an American astronomer who used Cepheid variable stars to show our location was not in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy, but  someplace near its edge. Later, in the summer of 1928,

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Bok would meet two people who would forever change his life at the International Astronomical Union meeting, one was his future wife, Priscilla, and the other was Harlow Sharply himself! Bok offered the former with a marriage proposal and the latter proposed Bok take a new position at Harvard. Only when Bok finally arrived at Harvard did his research into the Milky Way and star formation truly begin.

            The first celestial object to pique Bok's interest was a mass of swirling gases around Eta Carinae. He pondered why some smaller nebulae were strewn apart and dispersed while others were more enduring; to explain this phenomena, Bok reasoned that a rotating galaxy could produce gravity capable of causing waves throughout the Milky Way, tearing small nebulae asunder. Around 1947, Edith Reilly, a technical assistant suffering from multiple sclerosis, asked Bok to study dark nebulae with her. Bok was always interested in dark nebulae and readily agreed to join the young technical assistant. Together the two photographed, cataloged, and analyzed many dark nebulae over the next few years. Eventually Bok postulated that these dark nebulae are the birthplaces of young stars, that the clouds of debris would start to swirl and collapse under their own gravity, causing stellar fusion. Around 1956, when astronomers started using telescopes designed for radio waves they discovered evidence supporting Bok's thesis. Unfortunately WWII stunted communications internationally between members of the astronomy community and the groundbreaking work done by the use of these new radio telescopes were not being shared openly. Bok was not to be discouraged by international disputes and decided to form a international scientific community sub rosa during WWII. This

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organization would evolve over the years and turn into the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). While never discerning the nature of the spiral arms themselves, Bok and Priscilla published Bok's findings for the rest of the scientific community to analyze and "draw" the arms from; additionally, they fostered an appreciation for the Milky Way itself by writing a book together entitled "The Milky Way" . In 1975, before Priscilla died, she said to Bok that she would be watching over him from "their beloved Eta Carinae". Four days later she passed away; in 1983, Bok joined her in their favorite stellar system.