Nicholson, Seth Barnes

Seth Barnes Nicholson, (born Nov. 12, 1891, Springfield, Ill., U.S.—died July 2, 1963, Los Angeles, Calif.), American astronomer best known for discovering four satellites of Jupiter: the 9th in 1914 (at Lick Observatory, Mount Hamilton, California), the 10th and 11th in 1938, and the 12th in 1951 (all at Mount Wilson Observatory, Calif.).

Educated at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, and at the University of California (Ph.D., 1915), Nicholson was on the Mount Wilson Observatory staff from 1915 to 1957. Of greater astrophysical significance than his satellite discoveries was his investigation of sunspots, especially their magnetic properties and terrestrial effects. With the American astronomer Edison Pettit, he made many thermocouple measurements of stellar and planetary radiation.