lyman spitzer was an inspiration not
just as a as a scientist but in addition
to that he was really remarkable human
being he was a visionary I was a
scientifically dough he was the one that
in the forest 19 floors before anybody
could ever imagine putting telescope in
space
he immediately started thinking and said
well there are workers we can go above
the Earth's atmosphere when we build
some mission for the telescope up above
the Earth's atmosphere so he wrote this
paper for the RAND Corporation it was an
unusual proposition that he was making
to get away from the atmosphere whether
which makes the stars twinkle it is very
pretty and romantic and all that if you
could get above that and get a telescope
clear you could learn a good in people
thought he was crazy
it sounded like science fiction that
some early work on balloon measurements
to show how great was the improvement if
you got to greater heights and as a
result of that Lyman became the focal
point for putting telescopes in space
anybody that studies astronomy and
astrophysics has to think of linemen as
a great pioneer but also one who laid
the foundations solid foundations for
for future work made apical
contributions and plasma physics in
stellar dynamics
space physics and the interstellar
medium and how stars form i think it's
fair to say that if any one person are
created the field of thought of
interstellar astrophysics it was lyman
spitzer he was certainly among the very
first people to be applying laws of
physics to thinking about interstellar
dust and recognizing it as something
which was not just the the annoying
obscuration which bothers optical
astronomers would be quite happy there
simply were no interest or gospel rather
he recognized that it was something
which was a crucial constituent of the
interstellar medium the last of the
great observatories is up and running
now it face what lineman's state says
vision was perfectly when that I'm so
he's not here to see his green control
his outlet
was rock climbing he was a very good
climber on took probably a few more
risks than I would have been willing to
take when he was chair of the department
and this quite senior at the University
he decided it would be nice to climb the
tower of the graduate college he thought
well the worst thing they could do is
take away his chairmanship of the
department which that was perfectly ok
so he completed the climbs and was
reprimanded and the guests went home the
students just adult he had this aura and
presence when he walked in a room you
knew you were in the presence of a great
man but he did not want to take any of
the credit away from the young people
that were working with him
his office was in the house the foot of
the stairs
the kids would want to come in and he
would drop whatever he was doing and was
always always time for his family he
loved his family is a pocket of clarity
light innovative very gentlemanlike he
was sufficiently powerful of personality
with enough good ideas that most of
those ideas have lasted until now
speech legacy i would say is the the the
treatment we have obtained with the
Great observatories is is just
unparalleled with Lyman Spitzer achieve
with his dream is comparable to work
going there was achieving
revolutionizing our understanding of
four units
history about the only person around it
doesn't have TV coverage of the baby and
then you got the black up now you're
gonna feel a little TV picture now epic
failure we are gay
baby pictures chillin out as one all