Jakob Karl Ernst Halm
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Jakob Karl Ernst Halm (1866 – 1944){{cite journal|last=Glass|first=I.S.|date=2014|title=Jacob Karl Ernst Halm (1865-1944)|journal=Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of South Africa|volume=73|issue=2|pages=14–23|bibcode = 2014MNSSA..73...14G }}{{cite book|last=Poggendorff|first=J.C.|orig-year=1863 and later|date=1863|title=Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_jgcjAQAAMAAJ|publisher=Barth}} was a pioneer of stellar dynamics and the first person to suggest the existence of a mass–luminosity relation for stars.
Early life
Halm was born at Bingen am Rhein, Kingdom of Prussia on 30 November 1866.
Education
Halm went to school in Bingen and studied later at Giessen, Berlin and Kiel. He obtained his PhD at Kiel in 1890 for work on linear differential equations.
Career
File:JKE_Halm_making_solar_observations_in_Edinburgh_ca_1905.jpg
Assistant at the University Observatory, Strasbourg (1889-1895).
First Class Assistant at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh (1895-1907).
Chief Assistant at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope (1907-1927).
Scientific contributions
While at Edinburgh Halm used a heliometer to feed a spectrograph in order to study the differential rotation of the Sun at different latitudes, he discovered that absorption lines near the edge of the Solar disc are displaced towards the red, compared with their positions at the centre. This was not due to obvious effects such as rotation.{{cite journal|last=Halm|first=J.|date=1907|title=Über eine bisher unbekannte Verschiebung der Fraunhoferschen Linien des Sonnenspektrums|journal=Astronomische Nachrichten|volume=173|issue=18–19|pages=273–288|bibcode = 1907AN....173..273H|doi=10.1002/asna.19061731802|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1424835}} He also gave the first interpretation of what is now called a P Cygni profile {{cite journal|last=Halm|first=J.|date=1904|title=On Professor Seeliger's Theory of Temporary Stars|journal=Proc. R. Soc. Edinburgh|volume=25|pages=513–552|doi=10.1017/S0370164600008725}}{{cite journal|last=Williams|first=Peredur|date=2004|title=Centenary (1904-2004) of the interpretation of the P Cygni profile|journal=Newsletter, Society for the History of Astronomy|volume=5|issue=5|pages=13|bibcode=2004SHAN....5...13W}} while discussing the spectrum of Nova Persei 1901.
File:Halm. BA group in Cape Town 1914.jpg
While at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, he was involved in follow-up work on the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung (CPD) of David Gill and Jacobus Kapteyn using radial velocities and proper motions. Repeated observations had already led to the discovery of two star streams by Kapteyn and Halm was able to identify a third (Halm 1911) associated with what he called "Orion-type" stars.{{cite journal|last=Halm|first=J.|date=1911|title=Stars, motion in space, etc. Further considerations relating to the systematic motions of the stars|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=71|pages=610–639|bibcode = 1911MNRAS..71..610H|doi=10.1093/mnras/71.8.610|doi-access=free}} This paper went on to say that motion of stars appeared to obey a Maxwellian distribution, implying equipartition of energy, i.e., the less massive ones moved more rapidly than the massive ones. His conclusion was based on stellar masses derived from a number of well-studied binaries. Eddington{{cite book |last=Eddington|first=A.|date=1914|title=Stellar Movements and the Structure of the Universe|publisher=Cambridge University Press}} showed, however, that stellar interactions, owing to their rarity, could not produce this result. However, Halm's work was important in stimulating research on the subject.
The paper concluded that there is a relation between spectral type and mass for stars. This was the first announcement of the mass–luminosity relation, later elaborated by many others.{{cite journal|last=Kuiper|first=G.P.|date=1938|title=The Empirical Mass–Luminosity Relationship|journal=Astrophysical Journal|volume=88|pages=472–506|bibcode = 1938ApJ....88..472K |doi = 10.1086/143999 |doi-access=free}}
His work on determination of magnitudes from photographic plates led him to an improved understanding of reciprocity failure, on which he published a paper,{{cite journal|last=Halm|first=J.|date=1915|title=On the Determination of Fundamental Photographic Magnitudes|journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society|volume=75|pages=150–177|bibcode = 1915MNRAS..75..150H|doi=10.1093/mnras/75.3.150|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1431897|doi-access=free}} leading to the Kron–Halm catenary equation.
In 1917, Halm was the first person to make an estimate of the total to selective extinction of starlight. He determined that the interstellar extinction in magnitudes is a factor of 1.22 times greater in
Halm believed that many terrestrial features could be explained by an ongoing expansion of the Earth's crust.{{cite journal|last=Halm|first=J.|date=1935|title=An Astronomical Aspect of the Evolution of the Earth|
journal=Journal of the Astronomical Society of South Africa|volume=4|page=1|bibcode = 1935JASSA...4....1H }} Though it created considerable interest at the time, since the advent of plate tectonic theory his expansion hypothesis is no longer considered plausible.
Death
He died 17 July 1944 in South Africa.
References
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Category:South African astronomers
Category:Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
Category:Emigrants from the German Empire