Professor
Gordon Hemenway Pettengill
(
–
)
1926
2021
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
;
Cambridge, MA
Physicist; Educator
Area
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Specialty
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Earth Sciences
Elected
1973
Pioneered the development of radar astronomy, beginning with the first application of coherent earth-based radar to studies of the Moon in 1959. In 1965, discovered the unexpected 2/3 spin/orbital period resonance of the planet Mercury. Directed radar mapping experiments on space mission to Venus: Pioneer-Venus 1978-1981, and Magellan 1990-1993, which have mapped nearly the entire Venus surface at the resolution of a few hundred meters. Has been involved with the laser altimeter experiment on the Mars Global Surveyor 1997-2001, which has produced a global topographic map of Mars with vertical accuracy of a few meters.
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