astronomy

Gustav Andreas Tammann

Gustav Andreas Tammann is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gustav Andreas Tammann rather than just read about it. In short: Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a Swiss astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the European Space Agency Space Telescope Advisory Team, and as Member of Council of the European Southern Observatory.

Key takeaways

Gustav Andreas Tammann belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gustav Andreas Tammann to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gustav Andreas Tammann from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a Swiss astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the European Space Agency Space Telescope Advisory Team, and as Member of Council of the European Southern Observatory. His research interests included supernovae and the extragalactic distance scale. Tammann was a former President of the International Astronomical Union Commission on Galaxies. Tammann is the grandson of chemist-physicist Gustav Heinrich Tammann.

Education and early career Tammann studied astronomy in Basel, Switzerland and Göttingen, Germany. In 1963 he began a longtime working relationship with Allan Sandage at the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories.

Academic career In 1972, he became a professor at the University of Hamburg. From 1977 until his retirement, he was a professor and head of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Basel. His work focused mainly on the determination of the Hubble constant as well as the use of supernovae as cosmic distance indicators.

Accolades In 1991 Tammann became a full member of Academia Europaea, and in 1993 became a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2000 he received the Albert Einstein Medal that is given for "outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein" and the Tomalla Prize for his efforts in measuring the expansion rate of the universe and especially for his pioneering work using Supernovae as standard candles. In 2005 he received the Karl Schwarzschild Medal. The asteroid 18872 Tammann was named for him in 2001.

Publications Halleys Komet (1985)

References

External links Gustav A. Tammann

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gustav Andreas Tammann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gustav Andreas Tammann claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gustav Andreas Tammann before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gustav Andreas Tammann ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gustav Andreas Tammann

In research: Gustav Andreas Tammann appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gustav Andreas Tammann in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gustav Andreas Tammann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1932 births, 2019 deaths, 20th-century German astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gustav Andreas Tammann outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gustav Andreas Tammann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gustav Andreas Tammann means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gustav Andreas Tammann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gustav Andreas Tammann in simple terms?

Why does Gustav Andreas Tammann matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gustav Andreas Tammann?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gustav Andreas Tammann.