Skip to main content

Edmund halley Biography

Edmund Halley

(Edmund or Edmond Halley; London, 1656-Greenwich, Great Britain, 1742) English astronomer.He was the first to catalog the stars in the southern sky, in his work Catalogus stellarum australium .In 1682 he observed and calculated the orbit of the comet that bears his name, and announced his return at the end of 1758, according to a theory of his that defended the existence of elliptical path comets associated with the solar system.In the most important of his works, Synopsis astronomiae cometicae (1705), he applied Newton's laws of motion to all available data on comets.Among other contributions in the field of astronomy, he demonstrated the existence of proper motion in stars, which reduced the validity of the oldest observations, and studied the complete revolution of the Moon over a period of eighteen years.His Astronomical Tables , on which he worked until his death, were valid for many years.

Edmund Halley

Contributor From Newton in his works on the gravitational attraction between bodies, Edmund Halley was the first astronomer to predict the return of comets periodically near the Earth; his last name gave name to the most famous of them.From a wealthy social background, he devoted himself from his youth to mathematics and astronomy.In 1676 he embarked for the island of Santa Elena, in the South Atlantic; there he would carry out the first cataloging of the stars in the southern sky.

His work opened the doors of English scientific society to him and, on the occasion of a project to develop a theory on gravitation and the motion of astral bodies, he came into contact with Isaac Newton.The dialogue and cooperation between the two scientists led to the conception of the famous general law of gravity, which appeared in the book Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica ( Mathematical principles of natural philosophy , 1687 ) by Newton, which Halley himself prefaced and sponsored for the editors of the work.

From 1720 until his death he was director of the Greenwich Observatory and Astronomer Royal, a prestigious position that John Flamsteed and James Bradley held before and after him.As a continuation of his works on astronomy, and applying Newton's laws, he described the parabolic orbits of a total of twenty-four comets in his book Synopsis astronomiae cometicae ( Synopsis of the astronomy of comets , 1705), and proved that the comets that had been observed in the years 1531, 1607 and 1682 were actually returns of the same comet.Of that same comet, which would later be called Halley's Comet in his honor, he predicted that it would return in the year 1758.Sixteen years after Edmund Halley's death, astronomers confirmed the complete accuracy of his prediction.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Joseph Kasavubu Biography

Joseph Kasavubu (Tshela, 1910-Boma, 1969) Politician of Zaire.Defender of the interests of the Congolese vis-à-vis Belgium and of their independence, he actively participated in organizations aimed at achieving these ends, mainly in ABAKO (the nationalist movement "Alianza de Bakongo").He was the first president of the newly proclaimed Republic from 1960 to 1965, once independence from Belgium was achieved. Joseph Kasavubu In an early stage of his life, influenced perhaps by the education received from the Catholic missionaries, he served as a lay teacher.Subsequently, in 1942, he became a senior officer in the civil service, the most important position that a native of the Congo could access within the Belgian colonial administration.At the end of that decade he turned all his efforts into different Congolese independence movements that fought against the Belgian authorities, at the head of cultural organizations and student groups that were really masked political fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Johannes Diderik Van der Waals Biography

Johannes Diderik Van der Waals (Leiden, Netherlands, 1837-Amsterdam, 1923) Dutch physicist.Professor at the universities of The Hague (1877) and Amsterdam (1908), he is known for the equation of the state of real gases (Van der Waals equation) that allows a closer approximation to physical reality than the ideal gas equation , by taking into account the existing interaction forces between the molecules; This contribution led to the award, in 1910, of the Nobel Prize in Physics.He also developed research on electrolytic dissociation, on the thermodynamic theory of capillarity and on fluid statics.He also studied the electrostatic attractive forces (Van der Waals forces) exerted between the constituent molecules of matter, which have their origin in the distribution of positive and negative charges in the molecule. JD Van der Waals Among the contributions of Van der Waals stands out the aforementioned refinement of the laws (discovered by Robert Boyle and Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Francisco Galí Biography

Francisco Galí (Seville, 1539-Mexico, 1591) Spanish navigator.In 1582 he undertook a trip to the coast of North America by order of the viceroy of Mexico Pedro Moya.He explored some of the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, the coast of Baja California and the San Francisco Bay.He wrote an account of his travels.
Post a Comment
Read more

Hasday ibn Shaprut Biography

Hasday ibn Shaprut (Jaén, 915-Córdoba, 970) Hebraic-Spanish politician and patron.He was in the service of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III and actively intervened in his foreign policy.Appointed head of the Jewish aljamas of al-Andalus, he maintained relations with the eastern and North African Talmudic schools.Patron of his coreligionists, he laid the foundations of Jewish development in al-Andalus.
Post a Comment
Read more

Johannes itten Biography

Johannes Itten (Süder-Linden, 1888-Zurich, 1967) Swiss painter.He was closely associated with the German school known as the Bauhaus, of which he was one of its founding members. He began his studies in 1904, and entered a seminary on teachers in Bern.After these, he worked as a teacher.In keeping with his heterogeneous taste, he enrolled in courses in mathematics and natural sciences, which had great influence when he was later commissioned to direct the "Vorkus" or preparatory course for studies at the Bauhaus. Johannes Itten In 1913 he moved to Stuttgart, where he received drawing and painting classes at the city's Academy of Art, where he followed the courses taught by Adolf Hoezel.The same year that he moved to Vienna, in 1916, he came into contact with the artists gathered around the publication called Der Sturm (The Storm), with whom he exhibited his first works.Until his installation in Weimar to attend to Walter Gropius' request that he be part of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jean Jacques Dessalines Biography

Jean Jacques Dessalines (Guinea, 1758-Jacmel, 1806) Emperor of Haiti (1804-1806).A slave in the French colony of Santo Domingo, he adopted the name of his master, from whom he fled in 1789.Two years later, at the outbreak of the black revolution led by Toussaint Louverture, he took his side; organized one of the slave bands that rejected the British invasion attempt and collaborated in the formation of a black state. Jean Jacques Dessalines In 1802 an army sent by Napoleon, under the command of French general Charles Leclerc, overthrew Toussaint Louverture.Dessalines had to accept the deposition and deportation of Toussaint Louverture and surrender to Leclerc, who entrusted him with command of the southern sector of the island.But when Napoleon's intention to reinstate slavery became evident in 1803, Dessalines, taking advantage of the weakness of the French army and with British help, led a rebellion that drove the French from the island. That same year a a congress held ...
Post a Comment
Read more

José Leonardo Alenza and Nieto Biography

José Leonardo Alenza y Nieto (Madrid, 1807-id., 1845) Spanish painter.He was trained at the Academia de San Fernando, and his first works, on a historical and allegorical theme, such as Fernando VII mourned by the arts and sciences , are framed in the line that then prevailed within the the highest artistic institution. Later, under the influence of Goya's work, he turned towards a more personal style and gave the best of himself in paintings, drawings and engravings with scenes of customs, imbued with a great narrative spirit , which are a reflection of the Madrid of the time and are full of picaresque details. With these works and some others, such as Satire of romantic suicide , he established himself as one of the most outstanding figures of Spanish Romanticism.He was also a great portraitist.Only the presence of Goya explains why he did not reach a higher level in the panorama of Spanish painting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Gerard walschap Biography

Gerard Walschap (Londerzeel, Flanders, 1898-Antwerp, 1989) Belgian writer in the Flemish language.His novels dealt with, from a strictly religious perspective, the political, moral and existential conflicts of the present time.The trilogy The Roothooft Family (1929-1933); Sister Virgilia (1951), his masterpiece; Rebellion in the Congo (1953) and Alter ego (1964).He also wrote plays, poems and essays.
Post a Comment
Read more

Ilias Venezis Biography

Ilias Venezis (Aivali, Asia Minor, 1904-Athens, 1973) Greek writer.The novel Matrícula 31328 (1931), which recounts his experience of deportation after the Greco-Turkish war (1920-1921), is his main work.He is also the author of novels ( Serenidad , 1939; Tierra eolia, 1943, and Los vancidos, 1954), of short stories ( The archipelago, 1969), from travel books ( Autumn in Italy, 1950, and Eftalón y viajes, 1973) and from the historical essay Los argonauts (1962).
Post a Comment
Read more