Astronomer Kenneth Franklin dies at 84

Astronomer Kenneth L. Franklin has died at 84 from complications of heart surgery in Boulder, Colo.

Franklin -- who served as chief scientist and chairman of the American Museum of Natural History's Hayden Planetarium -- helped pinpoint the first noise known to have come from another planet and invented a watch for use on the moon, The New York Times reported.

He also provided astronomical information to The New York Times for many years, the newspaper said.

Franklin was born in Alameda, Calif., March 25, 1923, and earned a doctorate in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley, before joining the Carnegie Institution in Washington.

In 1955, he and Dr. Bernard F. Burke, identified radio noise coming from the planet Jupiter. In 1970, he invented a watch for moon walkers that measures time in lunations -- the period it takes the moon to rotate and revolve around the sun -- the newspaper said.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International