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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.
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