Science & invention
Robert B. Leighton
1919–1997 · experimental physicist, astronomer
Caltech physicist who co-edited The Feynman Lectures on Physics, discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations and helped take the first close-up pictures of Mars; born in Detroit.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Pasadena, California
aged 77- Birth name
- Robert Benjamin Leighton
- Also known as
- Robert Leighton
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Leighton was born in Detroit in 1919, where his father made precision dies for an automobile company. The family moved west to Seattle, where it broke up, and his father returned to Detroit while Robert went on to California. He spent his whole career at Caltech, where he studied and then taught. His research ranged across cosmic rays and particle physics, the Sun, the planets and infrared and submillimeter astronomy. In 1962 he discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations, the start of helioseismology; his team's camera on Mariner 4 returned the first close-up images of Mars in 1965; and with Gerry Neugebauer he carried out the Two Micron Sky Survey. With Matthew Sands he turned Richard Feynman's introductory lectures into The Feynman Lectures on Physics, still in print.
Highlights
- Co-editor of The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1963–1965)
- Discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations (1962)
- Led the imaging team for Mariner 4's first close-up pictures of Mars (1965)
- Two Micron Sky Survey with Gerry Neugebauer
- Born in Detroit, 1919