[1][2][3][4][5] Jacob Luyten was born in Semarang, Java, at the time part of the Dutch East Indies.
In 1912 his family moved back to the Netherlands where he studied astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, receiving his BA in 1918.
He spent the years 1928–1930 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, where he met Willemina H. Miedema and married her on February 5, 1930.
Upon his return to the United States in 1931, he taught at the University of Minnesota from 1931–1967, then served as astronomer emeritus from 1967 until his death.
He also catalogued 17,000 high-proper motion stars in the Luyten Two-Tenths Arcsecond Catalog.