Keeler's legacy

by Erin Wayman
Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Keeler's spectroscopic studies of Saturn proved the planet's rings are not solid. Credit: Public Domain.

James Edward Keeler led a brief life, but his legacy lives on. Scientists have named several natural phenomena after him.

Keeler Gap: A gap in Saturn’s A Ring that was discovered by the 1980-1981 NASA Voyager Mission.

2261 Keeler: An asteroid in the main belt that was discovered in 1977. In the last two years of Keeler’s life, he discovered two asteroids.

Keeler Needle: A more than 4,000-meter-tall mountain peak near California’s Mount Whitney. Keeler was a member of a scientific expedition to Mount Whitney to study how solar radiation is absorbed by the atmosphere.


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