Gerard Kuiper, 1905-1973

Dutch-born American astronomer Gerard Pieter Kuiper, 1905-1973. Among his discoveries were the atmosphere of Saturn’s satellite Titan, the carbon dioxide atmosphere on Mars, Uranus’s satellite Miranda and Neptune’s satellite Nereid. In 1951 he proposed the existence of a disk-shaped region of minor planets outside the orbit of Neptune (now called the 'Kuiper' belt) as a source for short-period comets.