Abetti, Giorgio

Born Padua, Italy, 5 October 1882

Died Florence, Italy, 24 August 1982

Giorgio Abetti is most closely associated with detailed measurements and interpretation of the Evershed effect, sometimes called the Evershed-Abetti effect. He also played an important part in the development of astrophysics in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, when most of the Italian observatories were focused on positional astronomy. Abetti obtained his degree in physics at the University of Padua in 1904, where his primary teacher had been his father, Antonio Abetti . He spent time at Yerkes, Heidelberg, Mount Wilson (where George Hale was one of his mentors), and Rome observatories (1910–1919). In 1921, he accepted appointments as professor of astronomy at the University of Florence and director of the nearby Arcetri Observatory, where he remained until his retirement in 1953.

While at Rome, Abetti made use of observations from many locations to show that the true diameter of Neptune is only 2.3″, and the density...