astronomy

Maarten Schmidt

Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt rather than just read about it. In short: Maarten Schmidt (28 December 1929 – 17 September 2022) was a Dutch-born American astronomer who first measured the distances of quasars. He was the first astronomer to identify a quasar, and so was pictured on the March cover of Time magazine in 1966.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Maarten Schmidt (28 December 1929 – 17 September 2022) was a Dutch-born American astronomer who first measured the distances of quasars. He was the first astronomer to identify a quasar, and so was pictured on the March cover of Time magazine in 1966.

Early life Schmidt was born in Groningen, The Netherlands, on 28 December 1929. His father, Wilhelm, worked as an accountant for the Dutch government; his mother, Annie Wilhelmina (Haringhuizen), was a housewife. Schmidt studied math and physics at the University of Groningen, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1949 before obtaining a master's degree the following year. He then commenced doctoral studies at Leiden University under Jan Oort. Schmidt was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from Leiden Observatory in 1956.

Career After completing his doctorate, Schmidt resided in the United States for two years on a Carnegie Fellowship. He returned briefly to the Netherlands, but ultimately emigrated to the US on a permanent basis in 1959 to work at the California Institute of Technology. In the beginning, he worked on theories about the mass distribution and dynamics of galaxies. Of particular note from this period was his formulation of what has become known as the Schmidt law, which relates the density of interstellar gas to the rate of star formation occurring in that gas. He later began a study of the light spectra of radio sources. In 1963, using the 200-inch reflector telescope at the Palomar Observatory, Schmidt identified the visible object corresponding to one of these radio sources, known as 3C 273 and also studied its spectrum. While its star-like appearance suggested it was relatively nearby, the spectrum of 3C 273 proved to have what was at the time a high redshift of 0.158, showing that it lay far beyond the Milky Way, and thus possessed an extraordinarily high luminosity. Schmidt termed 3C 273 a "quasi-stellar" object or quasar; thousands have since been identified. Schmidt was featured on the cover of Time magazine in March 1966. He was later a co-recipient, with Donald Lynden-Bell, of the inaugural Kavli Prize for Astrophysics in 2008. He lectured a total of 33 times at the Summer Science Program.

Personal life Schmidt married Cornelia Tom in 1955. They met at a party hosted by Oort, and remained married until her death in 2020. Together, they had three daughters: Anne, Elizabeth, and Marijke. Schmidt died on 17 September 2022 at his home in Fresno, California. He was 92 years old.

Honors Awards

Helen B. Warner Prize (1964) Front cover of Time 11 March 1966 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1969) Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1978) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1978) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1980) Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1980) Correspondent of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1980) James Craig Watson Medal (1991) Bruce Medal (1992) Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1995) Member of the American Philosophical Society (2000) Kavli Prize for Astrophysics (2008) Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Named after him

Asteroid 10430 Martschmidt

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Maarten Schmidt

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt

In research: Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt 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: Maarten Schmidt is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, 2022 deaths, 20th-century Dutch astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Maarten Schmidt in simple terms?

Why does Maarten Schmidt 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 Maarten Schmidt?

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 Maarten Schmidt.