Born The Hague, the Netherlands, 13 December 1834
Died Utrecht, the Netherlands, 4 September 1873
Martin Hoek researched the trajectories of meteors, minor planets, and comets in particular. He began his studies at Leiden in medicine in 1852, before turning to mathematics and astronomy there in 1854. After earning his Ph.D. in 1857, he became professor of astronomy at Utrecht University in 1859. Hoek provided reports on minor planets in the Astronomische Nachrichten from 1857 to 1866. In 1865, he first drew attention to the existence of “comet families.” After the Parisian comet scare of 1857, he showed that the comets of 1264 (C/1264 N1) and 1556 (C/1556 D1) were in fact not the same, and thus there had not been any danger.
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Selected References
Hoek, Martin (1857). De Kometen van de jaren 1556, 1264 en 975, en hare vermeende identiteit. The Hague: De Gebroeders van Cleef.
——— (1861). De l'influence des mouvements de la terre sur les phénomènes fondamentaux de l'optique dont se sert l'astronomie. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
——— (1864). Perturbations de Proserpine, dépendantes de la première puissance de la masse perturbatrice de Jupiter. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
——— (1865). “On the Comets of 1860 III, 1863 I, and 1863 VI.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 25: 243–251.
——— (1865). “On the Comets of 1677 and 1683; 1860 III, 1863 I, and 1863 VI.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 26: 1–12.
——— (1867). Détermination de la vitesse avec laquelle est entraînée une onde lumineuse traversant un milieu en mouvement: Sur les prismes achromatiques construits avec une seule substance. Amsterdam: C. G. van der Post.
——— (1868). “On the Phenomena which a very extended Swarm of Meteors coming from Space presents after its entry into the Solar System.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 28: 131–150.
——— (1869). Détermination de la vitesse, avec laquelle est entraîné un rayon lumineux, traversant un milieu en mouvement. Amsterdam: C. G. van der Post.
Hoek, Martin and Anthonid Cornelis Oudemans (1864). Recherches sur la quantité d'éther contenue dans les liquids. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
Poggendorff, J. C. (1898). “Hoek.” In Biographisch‐literarisches Handwörterbuch. Vol. 3, p. 643. Leipzig.
Yeomans, Donald K. (1991). Comets: A Chronological History of Observation, Science, Myth and Folklore. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
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Bolt, M. (2007). Hoek, Martinus. In: Hockey, T., et al. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-30400-7_635
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