Dirk Reuyl (1906 – 1972) was a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and

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 ...

. He was the cousin of astronomer

Peter van de Kamp Piet van de Kamp (December 26, 1901 in Kampen (Overijssel), KampenLaurence W. Fredrick, Peter van de Kamp (1901–1995)', Publications of the Astronomical Socitiey of the Pacific 108:556–559, July 1996 – May 18, 1995 in Amsterdam), known a ...

Life

Like his cousin, Reuijl (later "Reuyl") was born in Kampen, Overijssel. He studied physics and mathematics at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

, where, in October 1931, he defended his PhD dissertation "Photographic measures of close double stars" with

Albertus Antonie Nijland Albertus (Albert) Antonie Nijland (30 October 1868 – 18 August 1936) was a Dutch astronomer. He was professor of astronomy at the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht, and served as director of the ''Sterrewacht Sonnenborgh'' (now the ''Sterrekundig ...

as advisor. He came to the United States a few years before Van de Kamp. He joined the staff at

McCormick Observatory The Leander McCormick Observatory is one of the astronomical observatories operated by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Virginia, and is situated just outside Charlottesville, Virginia (US) in Albemarle County on the summit of Mo ...

in 1929 and continued to work there until 1944. He originally worked on the parallax of stars, first publishing a list of 50 measurements in 1929 with fellow staff member

Alexander N. Vyssotsky Alexander Nikolayevich Vyssotsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Высо́тский, 23 May 1888 – 31 December 1973) was a Russian- American astronomer. Born in Moscow, in 1923 he moved to the United States, where he event ...

. In 1941 he measured angular diameter of ''

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

'' using photographic plates.

Claim of planets

In 1943 he claimed to have discovered (with Erik Holberg) a ''planetary companion'' of the star system '' 70 Ophiuchi'' and other stars. He claimed that this ''planetary object'' had 10 times the mass of the planet ''

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 a 17-year orbital period. This caused quite a sensation at the time. A critical analysis by Wulff Heintz later discredited these claims.

Later life and death

In 1944 he left

and became head of the Photographic Division at the

Ballistic Research Laboratory The Ballistic Research Laboratory (BRL) was a leading U.S. Army research establishment situated at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland that specialized in ballistics ( interior, exterior, and terminal) as well as vulnerability and lethality analys ...

of the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

Aberdeen Proving Ground Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (sometimes erroneously called Aberdeen Proving ''Grounds'') is a U.S. Army facility located adjacent to Aberdeen, Harford County, Maryland, United States. More than 7,500 civilians and 5,000 military personnel work a ...

Aberdeen, Maryland Aberdeen is a city located in Harford County, Maryland, United States, northeast of Baltimore. The population was 16,254 at the 2020 United States Census. Aberdeen is the largest municipality in Harford County. Aberdeen is part of the Baltimor ...

. He wrote a 1949 article for

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

guided missiles In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

. During the late 1940s and the 1950s he worked on optically tracking the launch and trajectory of captured

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develop ...

s. In 1957 Reuyl began a project for the optical tracking of the first artificial Earth satellites for the International Geophysical Year. This project was in association with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and tracked the first satellites launched by the U.S and

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. Reuyl remained associated with Aberdeen through the 1960s. He died in 1972.

Honors and awards

Reuyl Crater, an

impact crater An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact crater ...

, was named in his honor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reuyl, Dirk 1906 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American astronomers 20th-century Dutch astronomers People from Kampen, Overijssel University of Virginia faculty Utrecht University alumni 20th-century American physicists Dutch emigrants to the United States