Up for auction a *RARE* "Astonomer" Forest Moulton Signed 3X5 Card. Todd Mueller COA

ES-1427

Forest

Ray Moulton (April 29, 1872 –

December 7, 1952) was an American astronomer. He

was born in Le Roy, Michigan, and was

educated at Albion College. After

graduating in 1894 (A.B.), he performed his

graduate studies at the University of Chicago and

gained a Ph.D. in 1899. At the

University of Chicago he was associate in astronomy (1898–1900), instructor

(1900–03), assistant professor (1903–08), associate professor (1908–12),

and professor after 1912. He

is noted for being a proponent, along with Thomas Chamberlin, of the Chamberlin–Moulton

planetesimal hypothesis that the planets coalesced from smaller

bodies they termed planetesimals. Their

hypothesis called for the close passage of another star to trigger this

condensation, a concept that has since fallen out of favor. In the first

decades of the twentieth century, some additional small satellites were

discovered to be in orbit around Jupiter. Dr. Moulton proposed that these were actually

gravitationally-captured planetesimals. This theory has become well-accepted

among astronomers. The crater Moulton on the Moon, the Adams–Moulton methods for

solving differential equations and the Moulton plane in geometry are named after him. Moulton

was a critic of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. He

was in charge of ballistics at Aberdeen Proving Ground in

Maryland during World War I.