Raymond Lyttleton facts for kids

Raymond Arthur Lyttleton (7 May 1911 – 16 May 1995) was a British mathematician and a scientist who studied space, called a theoretical astronomer. He was known for his ideas about how comets are made and how stars and planets form.

Who Was Raymond Lyttleton?

Raymond Lyttleton was born in Warley Woods, a place near Birmingham, England. He went to King Edward VI Five Ways school. After school, he studied mathematics at Clare College, Cambridge and finished his degree in 1933.

His Time at Cambridge

In 1937, he became a Fellow at St John's College. He also started teaching mathematics there. He taught until 1959. Later, he became a Reader in Theoretical Astronomy. This means he was a senior researcher and teacher in space science. In 1969, he became a special professor in this field.

What Else Did He Do?

Raymond Lyttleton was also a big fan of cricket. He played for Cambridgeshire from 1946 to 1949. He played in fifteen games during that time. He married Meave Hobden in 1939.

What Were His Big Ideas in Astronomy?

Raymond Lyttleton was very important in the world of astronomy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1955. This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.

How Did Planets and Stars Form?

He studied how the Solar System began. He worked on ideas about how planets might have formed from collisions in space. He also showed that if a planet spins very fast and splits, it would create two separate objects. This helped scientists understand that binary stars (two stars orbiting each other) probably don't form this way.

What About Comets?

Raymond Lyttleton had a new idea about comets. He suggested that comets are like "flying sandbanks." This means they are made of many small pieces of dust and ice, not just one solid chunk. His book, The Comets and Their Origin, explained this idea in 1953.

Working with Other Scientists

He often worked with other famous scientists. With Fred Hoyle, he wrote many papers about how objects in space grow by collecting gas and dust. This is called Bondi–Hoyle–Lyttleton accretion. With Hermann Bondi, he studied how the Earth's core behaves when the Earth wobbles.

Awards and Books

Raymond Lyttleton received several important awards for his work.

What Awards Did He Win?

• In 1933, he won the Tyson Medal.
• In 1959, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is a top award for astronomers.
• In 1965, he won the Royal Medal from the Royal Society. He got this award for his important work on how galaxies stay stable.

What Books Did He Write?

Raymond Lyttleton wrote many books to share his ideas with others:

• The Comets and Their Origin (1953)
• The Stability of Rotating Liquid Masses (1953)
• The Modern Universe (1956)
• Rival Theories of Cosmology (1960)
• Man's View of the Universe (1961)
• Mysteries of the Solar System (1968)
• The Earth and its Mountains (1982)
• The Gold Effect (1990)

In 1956, he even had his own TV show on the BBC called "The Modern Universe." It had five parts and helped people learn about space.

Read also

• Lyttleton, Raymond Arthur (1968) Mysteries of the Solar System, Clarendon, Oxford.