Armin Joseph Deutsch (January 25, 1918–November 11, 1969), was an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either obse ...

and a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel univers ...

writer. __NOTOC__

Life and career

Deutsch was born in Chicago and earned a BS from the University of Arizona in 1940 and, after wartime service as an instructor at the

Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War ...

Chanute Field Chanute may refer to: *Chanute, Kansas, United States ** Chanute High School *Octave Chanute (1832–1910), American civil engineer and aviation pioneer *Chanute Air Force Base, Illinois, United States *Octave Chanute Award The American Institute ...

in Illinois, a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1946 with a dissertation on the spectra of A-type variable stars."Deutsch, Armin Joseph", ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers'', ed. Thomas Hockey et al., Springer Publishing, 2007
Volume 1, p. 295online version 2014
retrieved July 29, 2020."Alumni: Armin J. Deutsch, 1946"
The Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, retrieved July 29, 2020. As a graduate student, he was an instructor at Yerkes Observatory. After completing his doctorate, he was an instructor at Ohio State University for one year and then in 1947 moved to Harvard University, where he was promoted to lecturer in 1949. Beginning in 1951 he was on the staff of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatory in California; he died in Pasadena in 1969. Deutsch's research continued to focus on the

A-type star An A-type main-sequence star (A V) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class V (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure between 1 ...

s. He established that Horace Babcock and Douglas W. N. Stibbs's oblique rotator model explained the anomalous variability of Ap stars, and later studied other anomalous hot stars, such as the

blue straggler A blue straggler is a main-sequence star in an open or globular cluster that is more luminous and bluer than stars at the main sequence turnoff point for the cluster. Blue stragglers were first discovered by Allan Sandage in 1953 while performi ...

s; he suggested that both they and the Sun had rapidly rotating

core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the central ...

s. He introduced

Doppler The Doppler effect or Doppler shift (or simply Doppler, when in context) is the change in frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the wave source. It is named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who d ...

tomography in 1958, at a symposium at Mount Wilson. He was associate editor of the ''Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics'', and a councillor of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

from 1964 to 1967. His short story "

A Subway Named Mobius "A Subway Named Mobius" is a 1950 science fiction short story by American astronomer Armin Joseph Deutsch. It imagines the results of increasing the complexity of the Boston MTA system (now the MBTA) with a new interconnection. It has been collec ...

", a fantasy based on mathematics and particularly topology published in December 1950, has been much anthologized and was nominated for a

Retro Hugo The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier ...

in 2001; it placed 4th."A Subway Named Mobius"

Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

, retrieved July 29, 2020.

Selected scientific publications

* Armin J. Deutsch, "The Sun", in ''The New Astronomy, a Scientific American Book'', New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955 * A. Deutsch, W. Klemperer, eds., ''Space Age Astronomy: Proceedings of an International Symposium held August 7–9, 1961 at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

in conjunction with the 11th General Assembly of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...

(IAU, GA, 11)'', New York: Academic Press, 1962 * Armin J. Deutsch, "The Ageing Stars of the Milky Way", in ''Stars and Galaxies: Birth, Ageing, and Death in the Universe'', ed.

Thornton Leigh Page Thornton Leigh Page was an American professor of astronomy at the University of Chicago and at Wesleyan University. He became embroiled in the controversy over unidentified flying objects (UFOs) after serving briefly on the Robertson Panel, a C ...

, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1962 * Ann Merchant Boesgaard, Wendy Hagen, Armin J. Deutsch
"Circumstellar Envelopes of M Giants"
''Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society'', Vol. 8, p. 304, March 1976 (his last paper, published posthumously)

Honors

The crater Deutsch on the

far side ''The Far Side'' is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995 (when Larson retired as a cartoonist). Its surrealist ...

of the Moon is named after him.

Notes

External links

* * 1918 births 1969 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American astronomers American male novelists American science fiction writers Harvard University faculty Ohio State University faculty Scientists from Chicago University of Arizona alumni University of Chicago alumni United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II {{US-astronomer-stub

Life and career

Selected scientific publications

Honors

Notes

Further reading

External links