Kārlis Kaufmanis (February 21, 1910,

Riga, Latvia Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava (river), Daugava river where ...

– June 21, 2003, Clearwater, Florida) was a Latvian-American astronomer. He is noted for his theory, on which he delivered a public lecture more than a thousand times, that the

Star of Bethlehem The Star of Bethlehem, or Christmas Star, appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 where "wise men from the East" (Magi) are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem. There, they meet King Herod of Judea, and ask hi ...

was a

conjunction Conjunction may refer to: * Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech * Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator ** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic * Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...

of the planets

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...

and Saturn that took place in 7 BC. He was also the author of several textbooks on

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, mathematics, and

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

. He held positions at the

University of Latvia University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919. The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, seventh ...

(1936–40), the French Lyceum (1940–44), and the Esslingen Gymnasium in Germany (1945–48). He moved to Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota as an associate professor in 1949. He joined the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

as a visiting lecturer in 1961 and became an associate professor in 1963. He held the rank of full professor from 1970 until his retirement in 1978. From time to time the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota holds the Karlis Kaufmanis Public Lecture. Speakers have included

Clyde Tombaugh Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 January 17, 1997) was an American astronomer. He discovered Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper belt. At the time of discovery, Pluto was cons ...

, discoverer of the

dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Sun. It is the largest ...

Carolyn Porco Carolyn C. Porco (born March 6, 1953) is an American planetary scientist who explores the outer Solar System, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She led the imaging scienc ...

, noted for imaging work on the Voyager missions, and

Michael E. Brown Michael E. Brown (born June 5, 1965) is an American astronomer, who has been professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2003. His team has discovered many trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), including ...

, discoverer of several dwarf planets in the Kuiper belt.

Patron of the University of Latvia

Kārlis Kaufmanis is a silver patron of the University of Latvia Foundation. In 2003, 100,000 US dollars were bequeathed to the University of Latvia to promote the development of astronomy in Latvia. The will was used as an inviolable capital from which scholarships are paid to talented astronomy students.

Notes and references

External links

An article by Kaufmanis on the Star of Bethlehem, reprinted in the newsletter of the University of Minnesota's Department of Astronomy shortly after Kaufmanis' death, starting on page 2

The Star Of Bethlehem by Karlis Kaufmanis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaufmanis, Karlis American astronomers Latvian emigrants to the United States Scientists from Riga Academic staff of the University of Latvia 1910 births 2003 deaths