Gerard Peter Kuiper, famous
astronomer, was born in
the Netherlands in 1905, and moved to
USA in 1933, joining the staff at
Lick Observatory where he studied
binary stars and made
spectroscopic searches for
white dwarfs.
Later, at Yerkes and McDonald Observatories, he continued his observations studies of stars and made contributions to the theory of the origin of the solar system. Using infrared detectors available at the end of World War II, he pioneered modern infrared astronomy with his spectroscopic
observations of late-type stars and the planets. He discovered water vapor in Mira variable stars, methane in the atmosphere of Saturn's Titan, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars. He also discovered one satellite each of Uranus and Neptune, Miranda and Nereid respectively.
Kuiper was director of the Yerkes and McDonald
Observatories, and later founded and directed the
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. He made important scientific
contributions to the early NASA programs of lunar and planetary exploration, serving as Principal Investigator on the Ranger missions to the Moon.
He is probably most known for his theory about the
Kuiper belt.