Struve, Otto

Otto Struve, (born Aug. 12, 1897, Kharkov, Ukraine, Russian Empire [now Kharkiv, Ukraine]—died April 6, 1963, Berkeley, Calif., U.S.), Russian-American astronomer known for his contributions to stellar spectroscopy, notably the discovery of the widespread distribution of hydrogen and other elements in space.

Struve was the last member of a dynasty of astronomers and a great-grandson of the noted astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve. His studies at the University of Kharkov were interrupted for service in the Imperial Russian Army (1916–18) and, after the Russian Revolution, in the White Russian Army (1919–20). He endured months of privation in Turkey after the collapse of the White Army, but in 1921 he was able to emigrate to the United States, where, as a staff member at Yerkes Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis., he began the investigations in stellar spectroscopy (the study of the properties of stars through the analysis of the wavelengths of their light) that yielded his most notable contributions to stellar astrophysics. From his studies of Delta Orionis and other stars, he found that the spectrum of light from distant hot stars sometimes contains a dark (absorption) line corresponding to calcium, although this could not be caused by calcium present in the star itself. In 1925 he attributed this stationary calcium line to vast clouds of calcium found primarily in the galactic plane.

Struve became director of Yerkes Observatory in 1932, and in the same year he organized McDonald Observatory, Fort Davis, Texas, of which he later became director. In 1938, after a two-year search, he established the presence of hydrogen in interstellar space. That discovery later proved of prime importance in the development of radio astronomy. He demonstrated that many stars rotate rapidly on their axes, some with rotation periods of a day or less. His studies of many stars with variable luminosity and of the spectra of double, multiple, and peculiar stars were extensive.

In 1947 Struve retired as director of Yerkes and McDonald observatories and became chairman of the astronomy department of the University of Chicago. In 1950 he accepted the directorship of the Leuschner Observatory at the University of California, Berkeley, and from 1959 to 1962 he was director of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank, W.Va. As vice president of the International Astronomical Union from 1948 to 1952 and president from 1952 to 1955, he was instrumental in preventing Cold War tension from destroying that organization. A prolific writer, he published about 700 papers. His major books include Stellar Evolution (1950) and The Universe (1962).