The Caltech astronomers concluded that the disk around MWC480 was "a dense reservoir of orbiting material that could be sufficiently long-lived to support" the growth of planetary bodies.

At this point, the Caltech astronomers started showing the puzzling spectrum to quasar and stellar astronomers elsewhere.

Maarten Schmidt, a Caltech astronomer said, "It was John, I thought, who for years kept up the advocacy in a very effective way."

According to a study by Caltech astronomers published in January 2013, the Milky Way Galaxy contains at least as many planets as it does stars, resulting in 100-400 billion exoplanets.

Other Caltech astronomers said the event of Jan. 23, designated GRB 990123, was 10 times more luminous than the brightest gamma-ray burst seen so far.

In the 1930s a Caltech astronomer named Fritz Zwicky discovered over 100 supernovae (exploding stars) in other galaxies with this telescope and gathered the first evidence for dark matter.

"After hunting clues to these bursts for so many years, we now know that the bursts are in fact incredibly energetic events," said Dr. Shrinivas Kulkarnia, a Caltech astronomer.

Dr. Charles Steidel, a Caltech astronomer, said the wide coverage of surveys like the Sloan were changing the way astronomy is done.

Putnam hired Albert Wilson, a Caltech astronomer who had led the Palomar Sky Survey.

"Bill was more or less ripe to become a wealthy businessman," said Jesse Greenstein, a retired Caltech astronomer and boyhood friend.