FTC Forum
ENGLISH => History => Topic started by: MysteRy on August 14, 2014, 01:46:19 PM
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Famous Astronomers
Throughout history, mankind has wondered what is beyond our own planet. They have gazed up at the stars and made some significant and important discoveries related to the field of astronomy. On our list below, you will find great names listed in order of popularity, like Copernicus, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy, among others. Read about the most famous astronomers of all time and their contributions.
Annie Jump Cannon
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Born: Dec 11, 1863 in Dover, Delaware
Died: Apr 13, 1941 (at age 77)
Nationality: American
Famous For: Stellar classification
Awards: Henry Draper Medal (1931)
Annie Jump Cannon was a Delaware-born astronomer who discovered at least 300 variable stars. These are stars that change their brightness or magnitude over time. These discoveries made Cannon a vital part of the evolution of stellar classification. She also discovered five new stars and a double star and analyzed over a quarter of a million stars to show the relationship between their spectral type, brightness, and distribution.
She also compiled a bibliography of 100,000 references to variable stars. In 1896 she joined the staff of the Harvard Observatory.
Cannon’s Early Years
Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware, the daughter of a state senator and a mother who kindled Cannon’s interest in the stars. She attended Wilmington Conference Academy and then went to Wellesley College, one of the so-called “seven sisters” colleges for women. While there, Cannon contracted scarlet fever, which destroyed much of her hearing. Still, she graduated from Wellesley and went to Europe to experience the 1892 solar eclipse.
When Cannon returned, she found few opportunities available to her, both because she was a woman and because of her partial deafness. Finally, after the death of her mother, Cannon wrote to her physics teacher at Wellesley and asked if there was the possibility of employment for her. Her old professor, Sarah Whiting, hired Cannon on as her assistant. Cannon took advantage of her position to audit graduate courses. She was especially enthusiastic about the astronomy course.
Cannon’s Collaboration with Pickering
Cannon studied spectroscopy, which is a science that deals with how radiant energy and matter interact. In those days, however, it was the study of how visible light could be separated into its component colors when it was passed through a prism. Cannon also took up photography, which was a new and fascinating art form at the time. She took graduate courses in astronomy and physics and entered Radcliffe College so she could use Harvard’s famous observatory. While there, she caught the attention of Edward C. Pickering, who was the observatory’s director. He was impressed with her knowledge and hired her on as an assistant in the observatory.
Classifying the Stars
Pickering had a coterie of female assistants known as Pickering’s women, or conversely, Pickering’s Harem. He hired these women to map the stars and complete what was called the Draper Catalogue. The goal of this catalogue was to map every star in the sky that had a magnitude up to +9.
These stars were to be classified by their spectra, which at the time was difficult. Pickering picked women for this task because he thought they were more efficient and patient than men and he knew that women also worked for less pay.
When a dispute arose as to how to classify the stars, Cannon created a compromise that divided the stars into the now famous OBAFGKM classification that is based on their temperatures. Cannon kept up her work in stellar classification for over 40 years and died in 1941 after she had been named the William C. Bond Astronomer at Harvard. She also was the only sole woman to be honored with the Henry Draper Award.
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Carl Sagan
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Born: Nov 9, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died: Dec 20, 1996 (at age 62) in Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Nationality: American
Famous For: Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Cosmos
Awards: NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1977), Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (1978), Oersted Medal (1990)
Carl Sagan, an astronomer, cosmologist, and astrophysicist, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in on November 9, 1934. He spent most of his career as a professor at Cornell University where he also directed other studies. During his time, he made over 600 scientific publications and he also wrote and edited more than 20 scientific books. In addition, he advocated scientific skeptical inquiries and methods, promoted and pioneered exobiology, and promoted the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence).
Early Life
Sagan graduated from the University of Chicago where he studied extraterrestrial intelligence and planets. Before then, he graduated from Rahway High School in New Jersey in 1951. Carl was raised with his sister, Carol, in Brooklyn’s Bensonhurst neighborhood and his father, Samuel Sagan, was a Russian immigrant worker in the United States. Even at a young age, Sagan was so eager to become a scientist. This idea was driven by a science book he read about how the sun was close to the earth.
Sagan’s Career
Carl Sagan was an astronomer who excelled at explaining the most complicated ideas in a simplified manner that was easy to understand. He was once described by Isaac Asimov as one of the only two people he had ever met with higher intelligence than his.
While attending the Chicago University, Sagan participated in the Ryerson Astronomical Society in 1954 and received a bachelor of arts in “nothing,” as he described it. In 1955, he received a bachelor of science in physics and in 1956, he obtained a master’s in physics before earning his astronomy and astrophysics Ph.D. in 1960.
Sagan’s Contributions to Astronomy
Besides his popularity in science books and the award winning Cosmos TV series, Carl made tremendous contributions to the field of astronomy. In the 1950s, he helped design mechanical devices that were used on space flights. He also published two crucial theories that were confirmed by space flights.
One of Sagan’s theories was that the planet Venus was very hot. The other one stated that Mars did not have a season where plants could be grown, contrary to what other scientists had believed at the time. He explained that the dark areas of Mars that were thought to be plants were simply gigantic dust storms in the Martian atmosphere.
Sagan was also involved in efforts of the Americans trying to explore the other planets in the solar system. He was one of the members of the Mariner-Nine to Mars voyage, which was the first vehicle to orbit a different planet. He also helped in choosing the landing area for Viking One and Two, which were the first two vehicles to land on Mars. In addition to these, he worked on Pioneer Two, which was the first space vehicle that was to investigate Jupiter, and the Pioneer 11 which flew past Saturn and Jupiter.
Sagan’s Death
Before his death on December 20, 1996, Carl Sagan served as the Duncan David Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences as well as the Director of Laboratory for Planetary Science Studies at the University of Cornell. He died of pneumonia in Seattle, Washington.
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Caroline Herschel
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Born: Mar 16, 1750 in Hanover, Germany
Died: Jan 9, 1848 (at age 97) in Hanover, Germany
Nationality: German
Famous For: discovery of comets
Awards: Astronomical Society (1828), Prussian Gold Medal for Science (1846)
Caroline Herschel was an astronomer in the late 18th and early 19th centuries who lived in both England and Germany. Her older brother was the renowned astronomer Sir William Herschel, and the two siblings worked in close partnership for a number of years.
Caroline was particularly known for discovering a number of comets, one of which was named after her. Her personal life was sometimes difficult due to the after effects of typhus, which she contracted at age 10 and which severely stunted her growth.
Early Life
Herschel was born in Germany, and spent her entire childhood there. In her early 20s, she accompanied her brother to Bath, England, where William had obtained a job teaching music. Caroline proved herself to be an impressive singer, to the extent that she acquired a considerable reputation and was asked to perform publicly. However, she was uncomfortable with Bath society and was somewhat isolated socially.
When William began studying astronomy as a hobby he fit around his musical commitments, Caroline quickly joined him. At first, the pair worked on the development of more powerful telescopes. Despite her typhus-ravaged body, she possessed immense dexterity, which allowed her to set up telescopes effectively.
Caroline also worked as a record-keeper and organizer, categorizing her brother’s copious notes. This work increased her own levels of interest in astronomy and by 1782, she was performing her own observations.
Caroline’s Contributions to Astronomy
After William had advised her to spend time learning to understand astronomy rather than simply observing it, Caroline Herschel discovered a number of comets. She also made history in that she was the first woman to be paid for her scientific work, something that was rare in the 1780s, even for men.
However, her brother’s marriage in 1788 reputedly upset her and led to their partnership becoming strained, eventually breaking down altogether. Science benefited from her domestic problems, since she threw herself into increasingly independent research and observation.
Most of Caroline Herschel’s observations in the 1780s were carried out with a 27-inch Newtonian telescope. With this she discovered M110, the Andromeda Galaxy’s second known companion. This was probably her most significant discovery during this period.
In addition, she discovered eight comets, five of which were certainly unknown to any previous astronomer. In 1798, at the recommendation of her brother, Caroline drew up a new star catalog, which the Royal Society published in 1798 as a considerable improvement to John Flamsteed’s previous catalog.
Caroline’s Later Years and Honors
After William died in 1822, Caroline moved back to Germany, although she continued her astronomical work in Hanover for several years. In 1828, she became the first woman to be awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society and would remain the only female recipient of this honor for more than 170 years.
Herschel was given an honorary membership of the society in 1835. She lived into her late 90s, with the King of Prussia bestowing his own Gold Medal on her in 1846 for her work in the cataloging and categorization of nebulae. Herschel died in Hanover on January 9, 1848. A small asteroid and a crater on the moon are both named in her honor.
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Charles Messier
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Born: Jun 26, 1730 in Badonviller, France
Died: Apr 12, 1817 (at age 86) in Paris, France
Nationality: French
Famous For: Messier catalog
Awards: Cross of the Legion of Honor
Charles Messier came to be known across the scientific community of Europe as “The Ferret of Comets.” That is because as a French astronomer, he discovered at least 20 comets, a remarkable feat considering that most famous astronomers of the day were lucky to find just one.
Messier was eager to discover as many comets as he could, partially because they were of scientific interest, but he also hoped they would provide him with fame and notoriety. Comets are generally named after their discoverers, as in the most famous case, Halley’s Comet, named for English astronomer Edmund Halley.
Messier’s Childhood
Charles Messier was born in Badonviller, France, in 1730, one of 12 children of Nicolas Messier and Françoise B. Grandblaise. By the time he was 11, his father had died and six of his siblings would not survive to adulthood. Charles Messier’s youth was a “life of poverty,” said writer and astronomer David Levy in his book, Cosmic Discoveries: The Wonders of Astronomy
Messier’s First Comet Sighting
With only a basic education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, the young Charles Messier was a youth without parents and without prospects. But 1744 was the year of the appearance of a spectacular comet of six tails, easily visible to the naked eye across the Northern Hemisphere. At the time, Messier was only 14 years old and the comet filled him with a sense of wonder.
Thus, as a penniless youth, Charles made his way on foot to Paris where he presented himself to a Parisian astronomer by the name of Delambres. He was hired as a lowly assistant to keep observatory records. Because of his excellent spelling skills and his “neat handwriting,” he was able to get his foot in the door.
The job with Delambres led to another position with another astronomer. He learned the science of observational astronomy “on the job,” and his long career as an astronomer had begun.
Messier’s Catalogue
Messier’s subsequent obsession with discovering new comets led him to compile a list of astronomical objects which remains one of the most significant documents in the field today. The 110 objects listed in the “Messier Catalog” have been a useful tool and an icon of astronomy for almost three centuries.
The Messier Objects are what appear to be fuzzy splotches of light in the deep night sky as seen through the most powerful telescopes of the day. These objects are actually star clusters, distant galaxies (such as the Andromeda Galaxy), and nebulae, or clouds of interstellar gas.
What motivated Messier to make a catalog of these objects is the fact that they could easily be mistaken for comets that were still a far distance from earth. Messier was tired of getting the “false alarm” of believing he had spotted a new comet whenever his telescope swept across the night sky and spotted a distant galaxy, cluster, or nebula.
Messier’s Lasting Influence
Creating a catalog of where these objects were located saved astronomers a great deal of time. Over the years, amateur astronomers have considered it a point of honor to spot as many or all of the Messier Objects with their backyard telescopes. In fact, many astronomy enthusiasts still do this today.
Messier was perhaps not a superior theoretician or mathematician, but his observational work earned him enormous respect and a place in astronomical history. A crater on the moon and an asteroid are named in honor of him.
In his lifetime, Charles Messier was elected to three of most prestigious scientific organizations in Europe: The British Royal Society, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and the French Academy of Sciences. He died at the age of 86 in 1817.
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Christiaan Huygens
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Born: Apr 14, 1629 in the Hague, Dutch Republic
Died: Jul 8, 1695 (at age 65) in the Hague, Dutch Republic
Nationality: Dutch
Famous For: Titan, explaining the rings of Saturn, centrifugal force, Huygens-Fresnel principle, wave theory, and many others
Christiaan Huygens was a natural philosopher and mathematician from the Netherlands. He was notably known as a physicist, astronomer, and horologist. Christiaan was a dominant natural philosopher in his time and his work was composed of telescopic studies on the rings of Saturn, the creation of the pendulum clock, investigations of timekeeping and the discovery of Saturn’s moon, Titan.
Huygens’ Early Life
Christiaan was born in 1629 as the second of five children. His father taught him at home until when he was 16 years old and he was later sent to study mathematics and law at the University of Leiden. He mostly wrote his name as Hugens.
Career Life
At an early age, Christiaan started working in advanced math by trying to disprove theories that had been established by ancient Greeks in geometry. He was interested in telescopes and astronomy and spent a lot of time designing methods to improve mechanical and optic performance of the telescopes.
His achievement in astronomy was reported in his book entitled Systema Saturnium, which was published in 1659. In this book, he noted the discovery of the rings around planet Saturn and his observations about the planets, the moon, and Orion Nebula.
Christiaan’s keen interest in the field of astronomy led him to measure time and other matters that relate to mechanical physics. He was involved in the 17th controversy with Vibiani as to the real creator of the pendulum clock, which he had presented as an accomplishment of the Dutch Science in his book, Horologium Oscillatorium. This may have been considered Christiaan’s finest efforts since he also suggested vital principles of classical physics like centrifugal force and gravity in a vacuum.
Huygens’ Reputation Builds
In the mid 17th century, Christiaan wrote a small piece on the calculus of probabilities pegged on theories of Fermat and Pascal. He spent a few years in England doing this. His reputation as a scientist and a scholar became known worldwide and he was given a pension by King Louis XIV to move to Paris. While in France, his works on timepieces continued to the point of an inclusion of balance springs in order to increase accuracy and reliability.
The very first watch made using this principle was completed in 1675 and was presented to Christiaan’s sponsor, King Louis. In 1681, Christiaan went back to Holland and began constructing optical lenses containing very big focal lengths. These were later given to the Royal Society in London where they remain to date. He perfected his lens grinding skills and eventually created the achromatic eyepiece which bears his name and is used worldwide today.
He published a book entitled Traite de la Lumiere in 1690 in which he suggested a theory explaining the wave behavior of light. He claimed that light waves travel on an invisible ether that fills the void throughout space and air.
Huygens’ Death
Christiaan Huygens died in the Hague in 1695 after suffering from depressive illness. He was laid to rest in the Grote Kerk.
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Clyde Tombaugh
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Born: Feb 4, 1906 in Streator, Illinois
Died: Jan 17, 1997 (at age 90) in Las Cruces, New Mexico, U.S.
Nationality: American
Famous For: Discovery of Pluto
Pluto used to be the ninth plant in the solar system until it was demoted to a dwarf planet several years ago. Its demotion happened less than a decade after the death of its discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh, who died in 1997.
Tombaugh discovered the small, rocky, frigid planet while he was studying photographic plates with a blink microscope at the Lowell Observatory in 1930. It was just where Percival Lowell had predicted it would be some 15 years earlier.
Tombaugh’s Early Life
Born in Streator, Illinois, Tombaugh and his family moved to Burdette, Kansas, when he was still young. Unable to go to college because he was needed on his family’s farm, Tombaugh was largely self-taught. When he was still young, he began to build his own telescopes and was hired to work at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, which was and still is run by members of the Lowell family. He stayed at the Observatory from 1929 to 1945. During his time there, Tombaugh attended the University of Kansas. He worked at the observatory during his summer breaks.
Tombaugh’s Discoveries
At Lowell Observatory, Tombaugh was given the job of actively searching for Pluto. He used a 13-inch astrograph, which is a telescope that takes pictures of the stars. The blink microscope helped him tell the different images apart and compare them.
A moving object would change position while the stars remained motionless. Though he eventually discovered Pluto this way on February 18, 1930, Tombaugh found many asteroids in the meantime. The first one he found he named after his daughter, Annette. He was fond of naming asteroids after members of his family.
Besides the hundreds of asteroids Tombaugh discovered, he also discovered variable stars, which change in brightness over time. He also found clusters of stars and galaxies and at least one supercluster of galaxies. He also claimed to have seen UFOs in New Mexico. Though he prided himself on his scientific objectivity, he could not rule out the possibility that these UFOs had an extraterrestrial origin. He became part of a project that searched for near-earth satellites, but claimed that the search, in the end, was unsuccessful.
Naming Pluto
Though he discovered it, Tombaugh actually did not name the planet Pluto. Before it was discovered it was given the placeholder name of Planet X. The name Pluto was suggested by an 11-year-old English girl named Venetia Burney. The name fit because Pluto is the name of the Roman god who rules the underworld. The name was also a tribute to Percival Lowell’s initials. The name became official on the May 1, 1930. Tombaugh’s wife Patricia claimed he would have been disappointed by Pluto’s demotion, but would have accepted it eventually.
Death and Launch into Space
Tombaugh died in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on January 17, 1997. He was 90 years old. But this is not the end of his story. He was cremated and a container holding some of his ashes is in the New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched on January 19, 2006, with the goal of surveying Pluto and five of its moons. The spacecraft is supposed to reach the Pluto system around July 14, 2015.
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Edmund Halley
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Born: Nov 8, 1656 in Haggerston, Shoreditch, London, England
Died: Jan 14, 1742 (at age 85) in Greenwich, London, England
Nationality: English, British
Famous For: Halley’s Comet
Edmund Halley was an English astronomer and mathematician who was brought up in a wealthy family. His father was a soap maker from the Derbyshire family at a time when the demand for soap was increasing in Europe. Although the father lost a lot in the 1666 Great Fire of London, he could still afford his son’s education and also pay a private tutor. After joining St. Paul’s School, Halley’s true astronomical talent started showing.
Halley’s Early Years
At the age of 17, Halley joined Queens College in Oxford with astronomical expertise practiced by the assortment of instruments his father had bought him. He reinforced his talent by working with John Flamsteed, who was the Astronomer Royal in 1675. His work encompassed observations at Greenwich and Oxford.
During his Oxford studies in June 1676, Halley observed an occultation of Mars and since then proposed to move to the Southern Hemisphere to carry the same observations. This idea was modestly financed by his father as well as King Charles II.
The King personally issued a letter to the East India Company to take Halley and an assistant to St. Helena. Also the president of the Royal Society, Brouncker, and the founder of Royal Observatory, Jonas Moore, supported Halley’s endeavors. This marked the start of his road to success.
Halley’s Astronomical Works
At the Island of St. Helena, Halley recorded celestial latitudes and longitudes. When he returned back home in 1678, he had observed up to 341 stars including a passage of Mercury along the sun’s disk. His published catalogue was the first one to contain southern stars with telescopically locations. As such, he was promoted to be a fellow of the Royal Society. In his service, he was sent to Danzig to resolve a dispute between Havelius and Hooke concerning observation accuracy. Hooke sued Havelius for making inference without using the telescope. Halley’s verdict was that the observations were accurate.
Nevertheless, Halley’s chief motive was to explain planetary motion using celestial mechanics extended from Isaac Newton’s studies. Together with Robert Hooke, they made impressive progress, but with no solid observed orbits that could support their findings.
Halley’s Work with Comets
In 1704, Edmund Halley was appointed the professor of geometry at Oxford, but he still persistently studied astronomy. In 1705, his book, A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets, was published and it described an observation of parabolic orbits of 24 comets that were observed between the years 1337 and 1698.
Halley’s careful observations with many separate years reveled that comets travelled in similar orbits. Particularly, he saw that the comets of the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 were similar and thus same. In fact, he further predicted that the comet would return in the year 1758 and when it did, it was named Halley’s Comet to honor his discovery.
In a nutshell, Halley’s transition from theoretical to applied astronomy has made him iconic and a symbol of inspiration to young astronomers. In his time, he also devised methods of accurately measuring the distance of the earth from sun. In 1720, he took over as the Astronomer Royal of Greenwich until his death in 1742.
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Edwin Hubble
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Born: Nov 20, 1889 in Marshfield, Missouri, U.S.
Died: Sep 28, 1953 (at age 63) in San Marino, California
Nationality: American
Famous For: Hubble sequence
Awards: Legion of Merit 1946, Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 1940, Franklin Medal 1939, Bruce Medal 1938
Edwin Hubble was an American astronomer who played a vital role in the establishment of extragalactic astronomy. He is regarded as one of the valuable observational cosmologists of the 20th century. He is specifically known for illustrating that recessional velocity in a galaxy increases with the distance from the earth, which implies that the universe is constantly expanding.
Edwin Hubble’s Early Life
Edwin Hubble was born in 1889. During his early years, he was noted more for his prowess in athletics than in his intellectual capabilities. He was a gifted athlete who played football, basketball, baseball and track. In fact, he ran track in both college and high school. He went to school at the University of Chicago and concentrated mainly on math, philosophy, and astronomy. These earned him a bachelor’s degree in science in 1910.
He was married to one wife, Grace Hubble
Hubble’s Career
Hubble’s father wanted him to study law. As a result, Edwin studied law at the University of Chicago and then later at Oxford. Since he did not have a passion for law, he began teaching physics, math, and Spanish at the New Albany High School after his father died. At the age of 25, he gave up his teaching career and became a professional astronomer.
Hubble’s Contribution to Astronomy
In 1923, Hubble trained a Hooker telescope on a patch of the sky by the name of Andromeda Nebula. He discovered that it had stars similar to the ones in the galaxy, only dimmer. From the discovery, Hubble deduced that Andromeda Nebula was not a star nearby but rather an entire galaxy, which has subsequently been named the Andromeda Galaxy.
Hubble went on with his discoveries and by the end of those ten years, he found galaxies to compare with each other. He made a system that classified galaxies into spirals, barred spirals, and elliptical. This system is now known as the Hubble tuning fork diagram and it is still used today, but in an evolved form.
Hubble’s major discovery was when he studied spectra of 46 galaxies. He studied the Doppler velocities of the galaxies that were similar to the Milky Way. He discovered that the farther apart the galaxies are, the faster they move apart from each other.
Hubble also wrote two books – The Observational Approach to Cosmology and The Realm of the Nebulae.
The Hubble Telescope
Hubble has a telescope named after him: the Hubble Space Telescope. It was launched in 1990 with a main goal of pinning down the Hubble constant. The telescope helped discover that the universe is not only expanding, but that the expansion is accelerating as well.
Hubble’s Death
After his long career at Mt. Wilson Observatory, Hubble died in 1953 following a heart attack in 1949 and a blood clot in his brain four years later. There was no funeral for him and his wife did not reveal his burial site.
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Fritz Zwicky
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Born: Feb 14, 1898 in Varna, Principality of Bulgaria
Died: Feb 8, 1974 (at age 75) in Pasadena, California, USA
Nationality: American, Swiss
Famous For: Dark Matter, Supernovae, Galaxies, Neutron stars
Awards: President’s Medal of Freedom (1949), Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1972)
Fritz Zwicky was a Swiss astronomer who worked most of his life at the California Institute of Technology. He is known for his many important contributions in theoretical and observational astronomy.
Zwicky’s Early Life
Zwicky was born on February 14, 1898, in Bulgaria to Swiss parents. He was the oldest of three children. At an early age of six, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Glarus, Switzerland. While there, he studied commerce. But later, his interest shifted to math and physics. At Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, he received his advanced education in mathematics and experimental physics.
Zwicky’s Work and Career
Zwicky migrated to the United States in 1825. After receiving the International Fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation, he worked at the California Institute of Technology with Robert Millikan. In this institute, he was responsible for the positioning of several cosmological theories that had a great impact on the general understanding of the universe. In 1924, he was appointed Professor of Astronomy and he also worked as a consultant for the Aerojet Engineering Corporation.
Major Contributions to Astronomy
Zwicky was fascinated with cosmic rays. With the help of his colleague, Walter Baade, he pioneered the use of the very first Schmidt telescope that was used in mountaintop observations in 1935. He personally carried the lens from Germany which had been polished by Bernard Schmidt, an optician.
In 1934, together with Baade, he came up with the term “supernova” and hypothesized that this was the transformation of the normal stars into the neutron stars and the origin of the cosmic rays. Zwicky later started hunting for supernovae and he was able to find a total of 120.
Other Contributions to Astronomy
In addition to coining the word “supernova,” Zwicky and Baade suggested the use of supernovae as standard candles that can be used to estimate distances in the deep space. In addition, Zwicky also hypothesized that the galaxy clusters could actually act as gravitational lenses, which was by the previously discovered Einstein effect. This effect was later confirmed in 1979 by Twin Quasar observation.
After discovering neutron stars, Zwicky considered nuclear goblins. According to him, goblins could move within a given star and then explode violently as they get to a less dense region towards the star’s surface. This served to explain the eruptive phenomena like flare stars. He also produced the artificial meteors and even considered the possibility of rearranging the universe.
Zwicky and Dark Matter
While studying Coma galaxy cluster in 1933, Zwicky was the first person to use the viral theorem to deduce the existence of the unseen matter. This was referred to as the ‘dark matter’. After calculating gravitational mass of galaxies within the cluster, he obtained a value that was 400 times greater that than expected luminosity. He concluded that most of matter must be dark.
Later Years and Death
In 1949, Fritz Zwicky was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on rocket propulsion during the Second World War. He was also awarded the Gold Medal of Royal Astronomical Society in 1972, which is the most prestigious award an astronomer can receive.
Zwicky died in California on February 8, 1974, at the age of 75. His body is buried in Switzerland.
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Galileo Galilei
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Born: Feb 15, 1564 in Pisa, Duchy of Florence, Italy
Died: Jan 8, 1642 (at age 77) in Arcetri, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Famous For: Kinematics, Dynamics, Telescopic observational astronomy, Heliocentrism
Galileo Galilei was born on February 15 1564, in Pisa, Italy. When he was 17 years old, his parents sent him to the University at Pisa to pursue medicine.
Galileo’s Pendulum Study
While he was in a service in the cathedral one day, he was distracted by a bronze lamp hanging from the ceiling. He noticed that the lamp was drawn aside so as to light the room better. When it was released, the lamp oscillated back and forward gradually with decreasing amplitude.
Galileo used the pulse of his heart to keep the time and was surprised to discover the lamp’s oscillation period was unaffected by the arc’s size of oscillation. He later proved through an experiment that the period taken by a swinging pendulum did not depend on the bob’s weight. He proved that the period is dependent only on the pendulum’s length.
The pendulum was what formed his interest in astronomy and science. When he later got the chance to attend a lecture in geometry, this further fueled his interest in astronomy. Galileo then changed from medicine and decided to study science, philosophy, and mathematics. These were subjects in which he believed he possessed a strong natural talent.
Galileo’s Career
In 1589, Galileo was appointed the mathematics professor at Pisa. In 1591, his father, Vincenzo Galilei, died and as the eldest son, Galileo had to take up the position of the bread winner. Since he was not well paid as the mathematics professor, he looked for a much better post.
In 1952, Galileo become the mathematics professor at the University of Padua. He was able to secure a job with a salary that was almost three times more than the one he received at Pisa. He held this position until 1610 and described this period as the happiest time of his life. He focused on a number of experiments, such as the speed of fall of various objects, the pendulum effect, and mechanics.
Contributions to Astronomy
In 1609, Galileo heard of the telescope invention in Holland. Having not seen the telescope, he made a superior version which he used to make many astronomical discoveries. He was able to discover that there were valleys and mountains on the moon’s surface. He could track sunspots, observe the planet Venus and its phases, and even see that Jupiter had four large moons. His discoveries made him popular and he was later appointed to the court mathematician of Florence.
Controversy with the Church
In 1614, Galileo was accused of heresy because he supported the infamous Copernican theory which stated that the sun was the central part of the solar system. This went against what the Catholic Church said, which was that the earth was the center of the universe. In 1616, the church went so far as to forbid him from teaching or pursuing such theories.
Galileo’s Punishment
In 1632, Galileo was condemned of heresy after he published his book Dialogue-Concerning-the-Two Chief World Systems. In his book, he used a dialogue between two men to argue facts that were in support and against the Copernican theory.
Galileo was called to present himself before the Inquisition at Rome where he was convicted and sentenced to a life of imprisonment. The sentence was later minimized to permanent house arrest in his home in Arcetri after being forced to publically withdraw his views and beliefs of the discredited Copernican theory.
Later Years and Death
By 1638, he was starting to lose his eyesight, but he still continued writing. He published a book called Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences which included his ideas on motion laws and principles of mechanics. Galileo died in his home in Arcetri on January 8, 1642.
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George Gamow
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Born: Mar 4, 1904 (O.S. Feb 20) in Odessa, Russian Empire
Died: Aug 19, 1958 (at age 64) in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Nationality: Russian, American
Famous For: Big Bang, Gamow factor, Gamow–Teller transition, Alpher–Bethe–Gamow paper, Alpha decay
Awards: Kalinga Prize (1956)
George Gamow was a Ukrainian-American cosmologist and a theoretical physicist. He was also an early developer and advocate of Lemaitre’s Big Bang Theory. He made the discovery of the alpha decay through quantum tunneling theory and also worked on the radioactive decay of atomic nucleus, stellar nucleosynthesis, star formation and the Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
Gamow’s Early Life
George Gamow was born in 1904 in the Russian Empire. His parents were both teachers, but his mom died when he was nine years old. As such, he grew up with his father. His education was mainly self-taught. He attended university at the Novorossiya University and later went to the University of Leningrad where he concentrated on optics and cosmology.
In Leningrad, George made friends with two other students who were also theoretical physicists – Dmitri Ivanenko and Lev Landau. They often met to analyze and discuss groundbreaking papers based on quantum mechanics.
Gamow’s Career
After getting his Ph.D. from Leningrad, Gamow started working at the University of Gottingen on quantum theory. This university was based in Germany and it was here that he researched the atomic nucleus. His findings gave him the basis for his doctorate.
He proposed the ‘liquid drop’ model of an atom first. This model treats the nucleus in an atom as one drop of an incompressible nuclear fluid. It was later developed by John Wheeler and Niels Bohr. He worked on the stellar physics with Fritz and Robert Atkinson as well.
In 1928, Gamow described the alpha decay theory. This was the first acknowledged explanation of the mannerism of radioactive components using quantum theory.
Gamow in the United States
After relocating to the US in 1934, Gamow started working as a professor of Physics at the University of George Washington. During this time, he worked with Edward Teller and published joint papers with him. Some of these important papers included the Beta Decay
in 1936 and the Internal Structures of Giant Stars in 1942.
Gamow produced another paper in 1928 with his students – Ralph Alpher and Mario Schenberg – on cosmology titled The Origin of Chemical Elements. This paper outlined present levels of helium and hydrogen in the atmosphere. These gases make up 99% of matter. This could be explained by the reactions which occurred in the Big Bang which led to the explanation of the Big Bang Theory.
In 1950, after the discovery of the DNA structure, George shifted his attention to genetics and biochemistry. He attempted to address the problem of how different kinds of bases in the DNA chains controlled the synthesis of the proteins from amino acids. Though it was flawed, it helped in the enumeration of the 20 amino acids present in proteins.
Other Contributions to Astronomy
Gamow had a great interest in astronomy and the solar system. In fact, he helped write a paper that supported von Weizsacker’s theory on how the planets formed during the solar system’s early days. He also published a paper which included his equations for calculating the radius and mass for the early galaxy. Since a primordial galaxy contains billions of stars that each have about the same mass as the sun, this was no easy task.
Later Years
Gamow developed an excessive drinking problem which precipitated his death in 1968 at age 64. He was laid to rest in the Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado.
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Jocelyn Bell Burnell
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Born: July 15, 1943 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Nationality: Northern Irish
Famous For: Discovery of first 4 pulsars
Awards: The Herschel Medal (1989), Fellow of the Royal Society (March 2003), Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2007)
Some say that Jocelyn Bell Burnell made the greatest discovery concerning astronomy in the 20th Century, which was radio pulsars. However, some feel she was pushed aside and did not receive the recognition she deserved for her discovery.
Early Life and Education
Susan Jocelyn Bell was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1943 to a father who was an architect and who also designed a high-profile planetarium. Her parents encouraged her to study astronomy and science from an early age. Even so, she struggled in primary school and failed the exam for her 11+, which is the equivalent of a high school diploma in the United States.
At the same time, Bell’s teachers recognized her as a young woman with a special talents and intelligence. She was encouraged to focus her mind on astronomy and physics, a subject for which she displayed brilliance. She eventually earned her doctorate in astrophysics from New Hall, which is now Murray Edwards College, a branch of the prestigious University of Cambridge.
Bell’s Major Discovery
After earning her academic credentials, Bell became the driving force which built the radio telescope that would eventually discover radio pulsars, which are rapidly spinning neutron stars.
But at the time, Bell was still working under her thesis supervisor, British astronomer Antony Hewish. It was he, along with Martin Ryle, who received most of the recognition for the discovery of radio pulsars – a move which outraged many in the world of advanced astronomy.
Although she was kept out of certain meetings regarding this major discovery, Bell insisted that certain data was highly significant, and this specific data led to the discovery of radio pulsars. Her superiors, however, attempted to dismiss the data as signals from “little green men.” Then when it was established that Bell had been correct all along – it was Hewish and Ryle who received the credit and the Nobel Prize for the discovery.
Bell’s Reaction
With great humility, Bell herself said that too much has been made of her treatment at the hands of her mentors and the Nobel committee. She said that her discovery was partially “luck,” and she also points out that is has always been standard form to exclude research students (which she was at the time under Hewish) for major awards or recognition.
Awards and Recognitions
Despite missing out on science’s top prize, Jocelyn Bell Burnell has received some of the highest honors and awards in science and from her country. She was named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (the equivalent of being knighted) in 1999. She also received the Herschel Medal, the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize, and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Bell’s Personal Life
Susan Jocelyn Bell is also a devout Quaker, a belief system that she says is more akin to science than religion because it encourages followers to reject dogma and find their own way to God based on direct experience.
Today, Jocelyn Bell goes by the name of Jocelyn Bell Burnell, taking the name of a husband she married in 1968 but later divorced. She has one son from the marriage. At age 69, Bell Burnell is still active in her research and is among the most respected scientists in the world.
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Johannes Kepler
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Born: Dec 27, 1571 in Free Imperial City of Weil der Stadt, Germany
Died: Nov 15, 1630 (at age 58) in Regensburg, Electorate of Bavaria, HRE, present-day Germany
Nationality: German
Famous For: Kepler’s laws of planetary motion, Kepler conjecture
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer who formulated three laws of planetary motion, which were indispensable in helping Isaac Newton discover the laws of gravity. He was also the earliest professional astronomer to support Copernicus’ theories regarding heliocentrism. Kepler also suggested more accurate and refined lenses for telescopes. An asteroid and one of the moon’s larger craters is named in honor of him.
Kepler’s Early Life
Kepler was born in Weil, Germany, in 1571. His father was a mercenary who abandoned the family when Johannes was young and his mother was tried as a witch when Kepler was an adult.
Kepler attended the University of Tübingen and in 1597, he married Barbara Müller, a wealthy young widow. They had five children together, but only a few of them survived. Following the death of Muller in 1611 , Kepler married Susanna Reuttinger. Together, they had six more children.
Kepler’s Career Beginnings
Kepler accepted an offer to teach mathematics and other subjects at the Lutheran school in Graz, now in Austria. He took this teaching job even though he wanted to join the ministry. However, because he was pressured to convert to Roman Catholicism, he left Graz and the school and moved with his family to Prague.
Relationship with Brahe
Some time before these troubles began, he met the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Brahe’s influence on Kepler was enormous. Brahe even supported Kepler and his family financially for a while and made it possible for him to advance in his career through his political connections.
Brahe was the most renowned astronomical observer in Europe at the time and he hired Kepler as his assistant. When Brahe died in 1601, Rudolph II, who was then the Holy Roman Emperor, appointed Kepler to be Brahe’s successor as the imperial mathematician.
Kepler’s Discoveries about Ellipses
Kepler’s most significant discoveries came when he was searching for an orbit that fit all of Brahe’s observations regarding the planet Mars. Before this, astronomers believed that a planet’s orbit was a circle, or combinations of circles. Kepler simply could not find a circular arrangement that agreed with Brahe’s observations.
Kepler eventually came to the realization that Mars’ orbit around the sun could not be a circle and was in fact an ellipse. The ellipse model worked and the theory that planets moved in circles, which had been in existence for some 2,000 years, was put to rest.
Kepler’s Three Laws
Throughout his studies, Kepler was able to formulate three scientific laws regarding the orbit of the planets and their motion around the sun. His first law states that every planet follows an oval shaped path, or orbit, around the sun. This path is called an ellipse and the sun is located at one focal point of the ellipse.
Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion states that there is an imaginary line from the center of the sun to the center of a planet. As planets move along this imaginary line, they move faster when they are closer to the sun and slower as they are a longer distance from the sun.
Thirdly, Kepler defined the time that it takes for a planet to make one complete trip around the sun as one period. His third law states that the squares of the periods of two planets are proportional to the cubes of their main distances from the sun.
Kepler’s Later Years and Death
In his later years, Kepler became an adviser to General Albrecht von Wallenstein, for whom he drew up horoscopes. Wallenstein worked under Ferdinand II, who had succeeded Rudolph as Holy Roman Emperor. Kepler moved to Regensburg in Germany and died there on November 15, 1630.
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Johann Gottfried Galle
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Born: Jun 9, 1812 in Radis, Germany
Died: Jul 9, 1910 (at age 98) in Potsdam, Germany
Nationality: German
Famous For: Discovery of Neptune
Johann Gottfried Galle was a German astronomer. He was the first person to view planet Neptune and actually know that he was looking at the planet.
Early Life
Galle was born on June 9, 1812, in Papsthaus, just a short distance west of Radis and next to the town of Grafenhainichen. He attended Gymnasium in Wittenburg where he studied at Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Berlin between 1830 and 1833. He later became a teacher at the Gymnasium in Guben where he taught physics and mathematics, but he later transferred to the Gymnasium in Berlin.
The Berlin Observatory
Galle started working as an assistant to Johann Franz Encke at the Berlin Observatory in 1835. He worked there for the next 16 years. While there, he made use of a Fraunhofer-refractor with a 9 Zoll (22.5 cm) aperture which helped him discover an inner dark ring of Planet Saturn. Between December 1839 and March 1840, Galle had also discovered three new comets.
In 1845, Galle was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy. His doctoral thesis could be described as a reduction and a critical discussion of Ole Romer’s observation of the meridian transits of planets and other stars between October 20 and October 23 of 1706.
Discovering Neptune
About the same time as Galle received his Ph.D., he sent a copy of his thesis to Urbain Le Verrier. He did not receive a reply, however, until a year later on September 23, 1946. Le Verrier had been investigating perturbations of the orbit of Uranus. From his studies, he was able to derive the actual position of the then undiscovered planet and he therefore requested Galle to search for it in the corresponding part of the sky.
With the help of his assistant, Heinrich Louis, Galle discovered a star of 8th magnitude which was only one degree away from the calculated position. The following couple of days, they were able to measure the proper motion of the celestial object (4 seconds of arc) and it was then determined as a planet. The planet was subsequently named Neptune.
The Breslau Observatory
In 1851, Galle moved to Breslau (now Wroclaw), where he became the director of a local observatory and later became a professor of Astronomy at Schlesischen Friendrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Breslau. He worked in Breslau for more than 45 years. He was elected as the rector, which is the highest position one can hold in a university, for the academic year 1875/76.
Other Contributions to Astronomy
At Breslau, Galle still continued to study planetary orbits and even developed a method for calculating the total height of the aurorae and the path of Meteors. He consolidated the data for the 414 comets that were discovered by 1894 into a single piece of work. He was also interested with climatology and the Earth’s magnetic field. Galle published over 200 works in his life time.
Galle also made an important contribution in determining the mean distance between the sun and the earth (also known as the astronomical unit, AU). This turned out to be a difficult task, but he was finally able to calculate the measurement to within 10,000 miles.
Galle’s Later Years
Galle returned to Potsdam in Germany’s Brandenburg in 1897. He died on July 10, 1910, at the age of 98, but not before receiving accolades from the astronomical world on the 50th anniversary in 1896 of his discovery of Neptune. In 1977, Grafenhainichen erected a memorial in Galle’s honor.
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Joseph-Louis Lagrange
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Born: Jan 25, 1736 in Turin, Piedmont-Sardinia
Died: Apr 10, 1813 (at age deadAGE) in Paris, France
Nationality: Italian, French
Famous For: Analytical mechanics, Celestial mechanics, Mathematical analysis, Number theory
Awards: Grand Croix (1813), French Academy of Sciences (1764)
Joseph-Louis Lagrange was born on January 25, 1736, in the city of Turin, located in Italy. He was a well-known mathematician as well as an astronomer. Although he was born in Italy, he spent a good part of his life in the country of Prussia and in France. Lagrange made many contributions to many different fields, including number theory and celestial mechanics as well as analysis and classical mechanics.
LaGrange’s Accomplishments and Contributions
In 1766, Lagrange became the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences, located in Berlin. He stayed there for more than 20 years. During his time there, LaGrange created a large body of works and he won many prizes from the French Academy of Sciences. He published a treatise based on analytical mechanics in 1788 entitled Mecanique Analytique, which was considered to be the most comprehensive work of the era on that topic.
Also, a week before LaGrange died in 1813, he was awarded the Grand Croix, which was a prestigious award. He also went onto be awarded with other prestigious awards, including the French Academy of Sciences award, which was given to him in 1764 for a memoir that he wrote on the libation of the moon.
Prizes and Distinctions
LaGrange accomplished many things throughout his career, with one of them being elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which was in 1790. In 1806, he was also elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
When the Eiffel Tower first opened, LaGrange was one of the few French scientists who were remembered on plaques during first stage of the tower. He was honored by having the Rue Lagrange named after him, which is located in Paris’ 5th Arrondissement. In addition to that, a lunar crater is named after him as well as the street where the house in which he was born is located.
LaGrange’s Personality
In addition to his awards and contributions to the field of astronomy, LaGrange was also known for his personality and his overall demeanor. People would talk about his nervousness and his timidity. He also let people take credit for some of the things he did simply to avoid any potential controversy.
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Michael E Brown
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Born: Jun 5, 1965
Nationality: American
Famous For: “killing” Pluto
Awards: Feynman Prize (2007), Kavli Prize in Astrophysics (2012)
Michael E. Brown was born on June 5th, 1965. He is a famous astronomer known for his work on distant objects (beyond Neptune) orbiting the sun. His biggest achievement is the discovery of the dwarf planet Eris, which is larger than Pluto.
Personal Life and Career
Mike Brown is from Huntsville, Alabama. He studied at the Virgil I. Grissom High School from which he graduated in 1983. In 1987, he earned his Bachelor of Arts in physics from Princeton University and he was also a member of the Princeton Tower Club during his time there.
Brown earned an M.A. in astronomy in 1990 from the University of California, Berkeley. He continued his education and got his Ph.D. from the same institute in 1994.
In March of 2003, Brown married Diane Binney. They have one daughter, Lilah Binney Brown, who was born in July of 2005. Today, Dr. Brown teaches undergraduate and graduate students at Caltech. His subjects range from introductory geology to the formation and evolution of our planetary system. He is also frequently invited to planetariums, science museums, college campuses and astronomical meetings to give lectures.
Brown’s Research and Findings
Dr. Brown is best known for his work on the trans-Neptunian objects (TNO), which are objects that orbit the sun beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune. His most famous achievement was the discovery of Eris, the dwarf planet, which is bigger than Pluto, which counted as one of the nine planets at that time. His discovery led to Pluto being re-designated as a planetoid.
His team gave informal names to Eris and its satellite, Dysnomia. Eris was informally called Xena and its moon, Dysnomia, was called Gabrielle. The names were inspired from the characters of Xena: Warrior Princess. Dr. Brown’s team is also credited with the discovery of planetoids 90377 Sedna and 90482 Orcus.
Brown’s discoveries have led to a greater understanding of dwarf planets, which are also called planetoids. As a consequence of his findings, Pluto lost its status as a planet and was downgraded to a planetoid. Mike jokingly refers to himself as the man who killed Pluto.
Brown’s Writings and Publications
Other than his work with TNOs, Michael Brown is also famous for his writings. He has authored about 100 scientific papers and his works have been published by World Book Science Year, Physics Today, and the New York Times. His memoir of discoveries, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, was published in 2010.
He has also taught a number of students during his career who are making a name for themselves in the field of astronomy. Some of notable among them are Megan Schwamb, Emily Schaller, Darin Ragozzine, Antonin Bouchez, Adam Burgasser, Chad Trujillo, Jean-Luc Margot and Marc Kuchner.
Awards and Honors
During his career, Mike E. Brown has won several awards and had many honors. For instance, Asteroid 11714, which was discovered in April 1998, was named Mikebrown in his honor. Time magazine also put him on its list of the 100 most influential people of 2006.
In 2007, Brown received Caltech’s most prestigious teaching honor, the Richard P. Feynman Award. He was also awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics in 2012.
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Nicolaus Copernicus
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Born: Feb 19, 1473 in Torun, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland
Died: May 24, 1543 (at age 70) in Frombork, Prince-Bishopric of Warmia, Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland
Nationality: Polish
Famous For: Heliocentrism, Copernicus’ Law
Nicolaus Copernicus was a German-Polish astronomer who helped found the discipline of astronomy when he posited that the earth was not fixed but rather was a moving planet. He believed that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe. This theory came to be known as heliocentrism.
Birth and Early Life
Copernicus was born in Thorn, now Torun, in Poland. When he was of age, he went to the University of Krakow. Through the influence of his uncle, Lucas Watzenrode, a prince-bishop, Copernicus was made a canon of the cathedral chapter of Frombork, now called Frauenberg. Because he was a canon, he had an income to support his astronomical studies.
The cathedral chapter also gave him permission to continue his studies in Italy. Copernicus went on and received a master’s degree from the University of Bologna and a doctorate’s from the University of Ferrara, where he also studied medicine. When he returned to Poland, he became the medical adviser to his uncle and served as a canon. He served in this position until his death.
Copernicus was a bachelor and had no children of his own, but he looked after the orphaned children of Katharine, his sister.
Refuting Ptolemy
When Copernicus was a young man, many astronomers believed in the theory that Ptolemy had formulated 1400 years before, which claimed that the earth was the center of the universe and did not move. Ptolemy said that everything revolved around it because that is what he observed in the sky.
However, Copernicus doubted Ptolemy’s theory. He believed that the earth speeds through space and that people cannot see this motion because they are traveling along with the earth. Copernicus realized that the motion described by Ptolemy was not true and what people see in the sky is affected by the motion of the earth. The real motion in the heavens needs to be separated from the apparent motion.
Copernicus’ Theory
Copernicus applied this idea to his tome, Concerning the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, in 1543. He dedicated the work to Paul III, who was Pope at the time, quite possibly to shield himself from any repercussions from the Catholic Church.
In this book, Copernicus showed how the motions of the earth could be used to explain the motions of other heavenly bodies. He believed there were eight spheres. In the outermost sphere hung the stars, which were immutable, or did not move at all. The sun was in the center of the spheres and it was surrounded by the spheres of the known planets.
The moon had its own sphere around the earth. Copernicus’ theories laid the foundations of the discoveries of Galileo, who discovered the moons of Jupiter, the planetary laws of Kepler and the gravitational principles of Isaac Newton.
Copernicus Creates Controversy
Because it removed the earth as the center of the universe, Copernicus’ theories became very controversial, though it took the Catholic Church a surprisingly long time to ban Celestial Spheres.
Copernicus died in 1543 when he was about 70 years old in Frombork, the place where he wrote his masterpiece. He is buried in its cathedral.
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Pierre-Simon Laplace
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Born: Mar 23, 1749 in Beaumont-en-Auge, Normandy, France
Died: Mar 5, 1827 (at age 77) in Paris, France
Nationality: French
Famous For: Black holes, Bayesian probability, Laplace’s equation, Laplace distribution, and many others
Pierre-Simon Laplace, also known as Marquis de Laplace, was a French astronomer and mathematician who became famous for his theory regarding the beginnings of the solar system.
LaPlace’s Early Life
Laplace was born in Beaumont-en-Auge, a village in Normandy. His father was a farmer, but Laplace was able to have a good education thanks to wealthy neighbors. Laplace’s father wanted him to become a priest, so he was at first sent to Caen to study for the priesthood. However, his enthusiasm soon turned to mathematics.
Because he excelled in this subject, Laplace became a mathematics professor at the Ecole Militaire in Paris at the early age of 20. The income from this teaching job allowed Laplace to concentrate on research in astronomy. He was one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s teachers, who later recognized and rewarded him for his work. But the friendship between the two men was often fraught.
In 1788, Laplace married a young woman somewhat younger than he was, and they had two children. When Laplace’s daughter died, Napoleon’s lack of empathy estranged him from the emperor.
LaPlace’s Study of the Solar System
In his Exposition of the System of the Universe, written in 1796, LaPlace started with a theoretical primitive nebula as the origin of the solar system. He believed that this huge cloud of gas rotated, cooled, contracted and birthed planets and satellites. The remaining material formed the sun. Laplace’s nebular hypothesis was accepted for a long time, but has now been replaced by more modern and accurate theories.
Contributions to Astronomy
Marquis de Laplace also contributed to studies in mathematical astronomy. Sir Isaac Newton had explained the movement of the solar system in general, but he had not solved all of the questions because the mathematical tools were not invented yet. Even Newton claimed that some aspects of how the solar system worked were just due to the will of God.
Laplace wished to reject this belief and he eventually accounted for the intricacies in the movement of the bodies and wrote about this in his Celestial Mechanics. In this multi-volume work, he summed up achievements in theoretical astronomy from the time of Newton. The books deal with equilibrium, the movement of fluids and solids, the law of gravity, and planetary mechanics.
Planetary Orbits and Black Holes
Laplace also discovered the stability of planetary orbits. He said that any eccentricities there were in a planet’s orbit were inconsequential and they always tend to correct themselves.
Laplace also theorized the existence of black holes. He believed that there were stars whose mass was such that not even light could escape the force of their gravity. He also believed that some of the nebulae that he saw through telescopes might be their own galaxies and not part of the galaxy to which the earth belonged. For the time, these theories were quite farseeing, as the existence of other galaxies was not even confirmed until the 20th century.
Awards and Later Years
Laplace was a member of several prestigious scientific organizations, including the Academie des Sciences, the Ecole Normale, and the Bureau des Longitudes, which he helped begin. He also became a count in 1806 and then a marquis in 1817.
Laplace died on March 5, 1827, while in Paris. His doctor removed his brain and it was on exhibit for several years thereafter.
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Stephen Hawking
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Born: Jan 8, 1942 in Oxford, England
Nationality: British
Famous For: A Brief History of Time, Hawking radiation, Singularity theorems
Awards: Albert Einstein Award (1978), Wolf Prize (1988), Prince of Asturias Award (1989), Copley Medal (2006), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), Special Fundamental Physics Prize (2012)
Stephen Hawking is a renowned theoretical physicist and astronomer. Currently, he works at the University of Cambridge as a physics professor and is still collecting awards attributed to his works. He is well known for his exploration and discovery pertaining to black holes and the fact that they produce radiation.
Hawking’s Background
Stephen Hawking’s background is an ambitious one. Born in the midst of World War II and on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, Hawking’s mom had to be transferred to a safer place when she was about to give birth. This safer town was Oxford, the place in which he would be raised and receive his education.
The quality of the education at Oxford did not satisfy Hawking. It was his father’s idea for him to take a career similar to his and walk in his shoes in the medical field. But Stephen wanted something different. He was more inclined to science and wonder.
Despite his love for mathematics, Oxford College did not offer that discipline. Instead, he pursued chemistry as his main subject. From Oxford, he joined the University of Cambridge to undertake studies in cosmology and general relativity – the works of Einstein.
Hawking’s ASL Diagnosis
In 1963, at the age of 21, Hawking made frequent visits to the hospital for tests to explain his developing clumsiness that was becoming more persistent since his time at Oxford. Later, he was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ASL).
This debilitating medical condition quickly deteriorated his health and doctors said he would not live long enough to complete his doctorate. But according to Hawking, he was enjoying life more than in the past and was determined to make grand strides in the field of astronomy.
Studying Black Holes
Ten years after his diagnosis, Hawking was fascinated by the works of theoretical physicists Alexander Starobinsky and Yakov Zeldovitch. They discussed the likelihood that radiation could be produced from black holes. He took the discussion seriously, verified it, and even predicted the amount of radiation that is produced. Although his calculation and formula are accurate, the technology to show this has not yet been developed.
His precise theoretical explanation was that particles are created in pairs, such as black and white pairs. In the process of a black hole formation, the black particles are absorbed, leaving the white particles without a partner. This appears as radiation and is measurable. Together with Brandon Carter, D. Robinson, and Werner Israel, they concluded that a black hole is described by three common properties: angular momentum, electric charge, and mass.
Hawking’s Other Contributions to Astronomy
In conjunction with Jim Hartle, Hawking was able to develop the no-boundary in space ideology that predicted a barred universe. A further dialogue with Neil Turok actually led to the conclusion that the proposal was in unison with the nature of the universe.
In addition, Stephen Hawking studied and contributed ideas to the field of astronomy including cosmic inflation, the density matrix of the universe, quantum cosmology, string theory and more. He has been awarded more than 15 awards due to his contributions to this science.
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Thomas Gold
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Born: May 22, 1920 in Vienna, Austria
Died: Jun 22, 2004 (at age 84) in Ithaca, New York
Nationality: Austrian, British, American
Famous For: Steady state theory, origin of abiogenic petroleum
Awards: John Frederick Lewis Award (1972), Humboldt Prize (1979), Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985)
Thomas Gold was an astrophysicist and a professor of astronomy. He was also a member of the renowned National Academy of Sciences in the United States and a Fellow of the Royal Society in London. Gold was among three Cambridge scientists who proposed the theory of the steady state of the universe in the year 1950. Thomas’ work crossed scientific and academic boundaries into astronomy, geophysics, aerospace engineering and biophysics.
Gold’s Early Life
Thomas was born in 1920 in Vienna and attended the school at Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz located in Zuoz, Switzerland. He finished his schooling in 1938 and entered Trinity College in 1939 to study mechanical sciences. He graduated with a degree in 1942. Gold worked as an agricultural lumberjack and laborer in England. He later joined Fred Hoyle and Bondi on a naval research into ground clutter neat Dunsfold.
Thomas Gold’s Career Highlights
Gold and his friends spent their off duty hours in discussion on topics like mathematics, cosmology, and astrophysics. In a matter of months, Gold was put in charge of construction of new radar systems. He determined how the landing of craft could make use of radar in its navigation to a good landing spot on the D-Day. He discovered that the navy from Germany fitted snorkels to the U-Boats, hence making them operational underwater while getting air from the surface above.
Contribution to Astronomy
Thomas Gold sparked a controversy when he said that the surface of the moon was covered by a fine powder. In 1969, he was vindicated when the Apollo 11 group brought samples of lunar soil back to earth for research. Analysis proved that the soil was powder and each grain was layered by a thin metal coating which was caused by the penetration of wind. Gold designed the stereo camera which was carried to the lunar surfaces by the astronauts from the US.
Another theory by Gold that was believed to be true was his theory of pulsars. It stated that astronomical objects produce regular pulses of radio waves. He suggested that pulsars are actually neutron stars which emit these radio waves as they spin. His view was ignored at first, but it was later accepted after the finding of one pulsar in Crab Nebula.
Gold as an Author
Thomas Gold wrote a book in 1998 entitled The Deep Hot Biosphere. In this book, he stated that coal and oil are not remainders of an ancient life which became buried and underwent high pressures and temperatures. He argued that these deposits were produced from hydrocarbons dating to when the earth was created.
He further stated that the volatile gases migrated to the top of the earth through the cracks in the crust and leaked into the atmosphere either as methane or became trapped in the sub surface and became oil, coal, or tar after they lost hydrogen.
Gold’s Personal Life
Thomas Gold received several honors for the work he completed during his lifetime. He also served in the President’s Advisory Committee of Science. He had two marriages; the first one with Merle and the second one with Carvel. He had four daughters form both marriages. Thomas Gold died of heart disease in 2004. He was age 84.
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Tycho Brahe
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Born: Dec 14, 1546 in Knutstorp Castle, Scania, Denmark, Denmark–Norway
Died: Oct 24, 1601 (at age 54) in Prague, Holy Roman Empire
Nationality: Danish
Famous For: accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations
The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe first became interested in astronomy when he realized that it could accurately predict the eclipse of the sun. During his time, the planetary tables astronomers used were inaccurate, which was a problem that he set out to change.
Brahe’s Early Life
Brahe was born in Knudstrup, a town which is now in Sweden. He was a twin, but his twin died shortly after birth. His parents were aristocrats, but when Brahe was a toddler he was taken in and raised by his uncle. He entered the University of Copenhagen at around age 12 and stayed there for six years.
The Immutability of the Heavens
On November 11, 1572, the first new star to be noticed in 1600 years appeared in the night sky in Cassiopeia. Brahe’s observations proved that this object actually was a star and, as a result, disproved the old idea that the heavens were immutable.
The star was actually a supernova, SN 1572, which was the remnants of an exploded star. In 1577, Brahe also destroyed the idea that comets originated in the earth’s atmosphere. He showed that the Great Comet of 1577 was actually a body that moved through space.
Brahe’s Career
Brahe worked on the island of Hven in Denmark for more than 20 years. He also built the Uraniborg and the Stjerneborg for him and his students to further their astronomical research and studies. The island had been granted to him by Frederick II, King of Denmark.
However, Brahe ran afoul of the government and moved to Prague in 1597. There he enjoyed the patronage of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II. Brahe not only studied astronomy, but drew up horoscopes for the court because astronomy and astrology were considered to be closely related.
To Brahe, the placement of the planets always seemed very different from where they were actually observed in the sky. Brahe decided to observe the planets in a systematic way and to observe them every night over a sustained period of time.
Other astronomers had performed their planetary observations when the planets were in critical points in their orbits. Brahe’s new technique of observing the planets may have been one of his greatest contributions to astronomy.
While in Prague, Brahe also met Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer. Kepler became his assistant and used Brahe’s observations to confirm and refine the Copernican system, which Brahe had rejected.
Brahe’s Nose
Tycho Brahe also studied at the University of Leipzig as well as the German universities of Wittenberg and Rostock, then the University of Basel in Switzerland. While he was at Rostock, Brahe fought a duel with a Danish nobleman. The nobleman cut off a bit of Brahe’s nose. After that, Brahe wore a prosthetic that was allegedly made of gold and silver, though he may have worn base metals for everyday use. Brahe used this disability to his advantage, for it inspired him to take up the study of alchemy and medicine.
Brahe’s Death
Tycho Brahe died in 1601 after a banquet. Most reports say that he died from a urinary or kidney problem, but some scholars believe he was poisoned. One of the murder suspects, interestingly, is Johannes Kepler. Also, there is a theory that his brother murdered him, too. Brahe’s body is buried in Prague.
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William Herschel
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Born: Nov 15, 1738 in Hanover, Brunswick-Lüneburg, Holy Roman Empire
Died: Aug 25, 1822 (at age 83) in Slough, England
Nationality: German, British
Famous For: Discovery of infrared radation & Uranus, deep sky surveys
In 1781, the German-English astronomer William Herschel sent shockwaves through the world of science when he discovered the planet Uranus. Since humans began observing the stars, the general consensus was that there were only five other planets in addition to the earth orbiting our sun. That there could be sixth planet in the heavens was almost unthinkable.
Herschel’s Early Years
William Herschel was born in Germany in 1738 (as Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel), but spent just about all of this adult life in England. From a very early age, people noticed his intelligence. His father, Isaac Herschel, was an oboist in a military band, and young William displayed an amazing natural talent for music. He quickly mastered the violin, harpsichord, and organ. He also began composing classical music of extraordinary quality.
Speaking Different Languages
As Herschel grew into his teens, he began to show that he could master any intellectual challenge. He demonstrated that he could learn other languages with ease. A native German speaker, he quickly learned English, French, and Italian. He also absorbed Latin and Greek, and he could also read and write in both languages.
Herschel Enters High Society
In his early 20s, Herschel moved to Sunderland, England, where he landed the prestigious “first violinist” position for the Newcastle Orchestra. Herschel’s enormous talent both with writing and performing music boosted him to the top tier of English society, living and working mostly in Bath.
Herschel was deeply interested in the theory of music as well. This led him to a fascination with mathematics. A meeting with British Royal Astronomer Nevil Maskelyne would bring him to his true life’s passion – building telescopes and observing the heavens. Once Herschel began studying astronomy, it became an obsession to him.
Building Telescopes
In his house in England, Herschel began grinding lenses to construct small reflecting telescopes, those that use mirrors rather than a lens as the primary light-gathering element. These are known as Newtonian telescopes because they were originally designed by the Isaac Newton.
Starting with small 6- to 8-inch reflecting mirrors, Herschel was driven to build bigger mirrors with increasing light-gathering power. Herschel once said that his goal was to “see deeper into space than any other man.” Eventually he did.
Herschel’s hand-made telescopes – which were certainly the finest in Europe – grew ever larger, culminating with his behemoth 40-inch mirror reflector which would be the largest telescope in the world for years to come.
Herschel’s Contributions to Astronomy
In addition to discovering the planet Uranus, Herschel was among the first to catalog deep space. Based on thousands of observations made over several decades, he was the first to construct, or at least attempt to determine, the shape of the galaxy by showing where and how stars are distributed throughout space. He is also credited with discovering infrared solar radiation, among other accomplishments.
Herschel’s talents as an observational astronomer, a theoretician, a telescope maker and an accomplished musician brought him fame and renown. King George of England frequently invited him to personal meetings and provided him with generous financial support.
Herschel’s Later Years and Death
Despite his fame, status and genius, Herschel was well-known to be extremely charming, kind, personable and even a humble man. He continued to be involved with music throughout his career as an astronomer. He died at age 83 in 1822 in Slough, England, where he had lived for many years.
His only son, John Herschel, went on to become an astronomer and scientist of great skill. His devoted sister and lifetime observational assistant, Caroline Herschel, also became an accomplished astronomer in her own right.