Schwarzschild, Karl (1873–1916)
German mathematician and astronomer who predicted the existence of black
holes. Schwarzschild, who became director of the Potsdam Observatory in
1909, did important practical work, establishing a method for determining
stars' brightnesses from photographs by comparing their visual and photographic
magnitudes to obtain their color index.
However, his lasting contributions are theoretical and were made during
the last year of his short life. In 1916, while serving on the Russian front,
he wrote two papers on the recently published general
theory of relativity, one of which develops the idea that the gravitational
field of a collapsing star could become so intense as to prevent the escape
of light. The boundary of such an object is defined by the so-called Schwarzschild
radius. Karl was the father of another famous astronomer, Martin Schwarzschild.
Related categories
• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
• PHYSICISTS
• MATHEMATICIANS
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