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449:. For many years, he pursued the idea for using a radar altimeter to map Venus and contributed key technical ideas. The results, in part, were detailed reflectivity and topographic maps of virtually the entire planet of Venus, providing geologists and geophysicists with lifetimes of work to understand the development of Venus' crust and the history of its interior. Many planetary scientists feel he was one of the individuals most responsible for our present knowledge of
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I, the first such observation of a satellite. His earliest research extending beyond the Earth's orbit was with this same radar in 1961; he used it to make the first ranging measurements to another planet, Venus. These first observations yielded a value for the astronomical unit in terrestrial units
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Pettengill led ground-based radar studies of the surface properties of all of the inner planets, including the Earth's (via a "triple-bounce" experiment: Moon-Earth-Moon). Pettengill also played a leading role in the first radar studies of an asteroid (Icarus, in
293:(February 10, 1926 – May 8, 2021) was an American radio astronomer and planetary physicist. He was one of the first to take radar from its original military application to its use as a tool for
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which has an accuracy 3 orders of magnitude greater than had been possible with the armamentarium of classical positional astronomy. Such knowledge was critical for the navigation of
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1968), a comet (Encke, in 1980), and moons of other planets (the
Galilean satellites, starting in 1976). In all of this work, Pettengill made use of radar systems at
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Gordon H. Pettengill personal archives, MC 609, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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company stationed in
Austria. After World War II ended, he returned to MIT where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1948. This was followed by work at
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G.H. Pettengill and D.E. Dustin, "A Comparison of
Selected ICBM Early-Warning Radar Configurations," MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Report 127, 1956.
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His observations embraced
Mercury, Venus, Mars, several asteroids and comets, the Galilean satellites of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.
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where he developed a fascination with radio and electronics. He often took apart and rebuilt old radios. Pettengill was interested in
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Pettengill successfully completed a two-dimensional radar mapping of the Moon in 1960, a key step in the U.S. preparations for the
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He was appointed
Professor of Planetary Physics in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT in 1970.
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332:(MIT) in 1942 at the age of 16. His studies were briefly interrupted by service in Europe at the end of
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From 1963 to 1965, Pettengill served as associate director and from 1968 to 1970 as
Director of the
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and found that
Mercury's day was 59 Earth days, not 88 as had been previously thought.
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Measurements on Proton-Proton
Scattering in the Energy Region 150 to 340 MEV
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For over two decades, beginning in 1977, he concentrated most heavily on
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President, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology. Office of the (1971).
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Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 3:377-411 (September 1965)
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in 1954. By the late 1950s, he was part of a group using the then-new
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni
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American radio astronomer and planetary physicist (1926–2021)
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Venus Surface Radiothermal Emission as Observed by Magellan
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Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
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340:where he served in the infantry and then with a
515:"Let's meet . . .Dr. Gordon Pettengill, W1OUN"
336:. When he turned 18, he was drafted into the
810:United States Army personnel of World War II
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775:University of California, Berkeley alumni
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635:"MESSENMESSENGER: Astronomer Biographies"
328:Pettengill began studying physics at the
131:Learn how and when to remove this message
69:Learn how and when to remove this message
755:Scientists from Providence, Rhode Island
715:Venus: Global Surface Radar Reflectivity
32:This article includes a list of general
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805:Military personnel from Massachusetts
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202:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
611:"Gordon Pettengill - Honors Program"
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550:The invention that changed the world
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348:and a doctorate in physics from the
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503:Gordon Hemenway Pettengill obituary
360:Pettengill began his career at the
297:. He was professor emeritus at the
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206:University of California, Berkeley
38:it lacks sufficient corresponding
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237:Charles A. Whitten Medal
171:Providence, Rhode Island
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53:more precise citations.
710:NASA Technical Reports
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472:in 1997. The asteroid
362:MIT Lincoln Laboratory
190:Concord, Massachusetts
96:contains wording that
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319:Dedham, Massachusetts
216:Guggenheim Fellowship
780:Amateur radio people
765:American astronomers
476:is named after him.
420:Haystack Observatory
157:Gordon H. Pettengill
100:the subject through
445:orbiter and later,
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397:Arecibo Observatory
356:Career and research
725:2012-09-27 at the
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460:Awards and honours
338:United States Army
223:Magellanic Premium
106:unnoteworthy facts
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464:He won the
401:Puerto Rico
182:May 8, 2021
121:August 2012
59:August 2012
51:introducing
739:Categories
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620:2018-07-18
591:2018-08-07
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490:References
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311:Providence
163:1926-02-10
34:references
468:from the
379:Mariner 2
352:in 1955.
295:astronomy
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447:Magellan
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405:Mercury
374:Sputnik
111:Please
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212:Awards
192:, U.S.
173:, U.S.
36:, but
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439:Venus
383:Venus
681:help
564:OCLC
554:ISBN
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