BornSchichenhof, Bavaria, Germany, 15 April 1874
DiedTraunstein, Bavaria, (Germany), 21 June 1957
German experimental physicist Johannes Stark is important within astronomy for the Stark effect, the broadening or splitting of atomic emission and absorption lines when the atoms producing them are in an ambient electric field, such as that due to the surrounding ions and electrons in the atmosphere of a star.
Stark was born to a landed proprietor and his wife. Stark’s early life included an education at the Gymnasium in Bayreuth and later in Regensburg. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Munich University in 1894 to study physics, mathematics, chemistry, and crystallography. Stark completed his doctorate in 1897 with a dissertation on Isaac Newton ’s electrochronic rings in dim media. Upon completion of his doctorate, he worked as an assistant at the Physics Institute at Munich University, a post Stark held until 1900, when he became an unsalaried lecturer in physics at the University of...
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Selected References
Kragh, Helge (1999). Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Stark, J. (1907). “On the Radiation of Canal Rays in Hydrogen.” Parts 1 and 2. Astrophysical Journal 25: 23–44, 170–194.
— (1907). “Remarks on Hull’s Observations of the Doppler Effect in Canal Rays.” Astrophysical Journal 25: 230–234.
— (1907). “Photographs of the Doppler Effect in the Spectrum of Hydrogen and of Mercury. Rejoinder to Mr. Hull’s Reply.” Astrophysical Journal 26: 63.
Whittaker, Sir Edmund (1953). A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity. Vol. 2, The Modern Theories. New York: Harper.
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Durham, I.T. (2014). Stark, Johannes. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_1311
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