Specola Guestbook: October 11, 1909
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from October 11, 1909, when Eduard Study made a visit.
Eduard Study
Next to his name, Christian Hugo Eduard Study (1862-1930) wrote "Bonn a. Rh. Argelanderstr. 126" (Bonn am Rhein, Argelanderstraße 126). He signed the guestbook again on April 10 of the following year.
Eduard Study was a mathematician who made significant contributions in the field. At the time of his visit, he was a professor of mathematics at the University of Bonn.
His contributions include the associative algebra of dual quaternions, kinematics, hypercomplex numbers, and, pertaining to quantum chemistry, a theory governing the coupling of angular momenta (that also applied to electron spin couplings).
At least two mathematical concepts bear his name: Study quaternions (aka semiquaternions) and the Fubini-Study metric.
Specola Guestbook: June 5, 1909
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from June 5, 1909, when George E. Hale made a visit.
Next to his name, George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) wrote "Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory, California."
George Ellery Hale
The year prior to his visit, he used the Zeeman effect--(see the previous post on H. A. Lorentz)--to discover magnetic fields in sunspots.
He also found that, between sunspot cycles, the magnetic polarity of fields through sunspots in northern vs southern hemisphere switches orientation - what is today known as Hale's Law (or the Hale-Nicholson Law).
In 1913, Hale advised Albert Einstein of the possibility of observing the effects of general relativity on starlight passing near the Sun, which he suggested might be possible during a total solar eclipse. This led to the eclipse observing expeditions of Arthur Eddington and others in 1919 that confirmed this aspect of relativity theory.
Hale is perhaps most known for his work organizing the construction of large telescopes. He is responsible for the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes Observatory, the 60-inch Hale telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, the 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson, and the 200-inch Hale telescope at Mt. Palomar.
The reputation of the California Institute of Technology (aka Caltech) as a leading research institution also started largely due to the work of George Hale.
There are craters on the Moon and Mars that bear his name as well as the asteroid (1024) Hale, and the terrestrial mountain Mount Hale in the Sierra Nevada range.
Specola Guestbook: January 15, 1909
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from January 15, 1909, when Herbert H. Turner made a visit.
Next to his name, Herbert Hall Turner F.R.S. (1861-1930) wrote "University Observatory, Oxford."
H. H. Turner visited the Vatican Observatory more than once. He also signed our book on May 12, 1910 and during the first IAU General Assembly on May 9, 1922.
Director of the Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford University, he was an astronomer and a seismologist.
In seismology, he discovered deep-focus earthquakes (more than 300 km deep), which occur in subduction zones.
In astronomy, he coined the word "parsec." (A parsec is a unit of distance for a star subtending 1 arcsecond of parallax shift due to 1AU of motion from the observer, or 3.26 light-years. The term became the center of significant unit-based controversy around the movie Star Wars, in which Han Solo claimed the Millennium Falcon did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.) Turner also played a role in the naming of Pluto.
There is a lunar crater that bears his name, as does the asteroid (1186) Turnera.
Specola Guestbook: December 29, 1908
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from December 29, 1908, when Dorothea Klumpke made a visit.
Next to her name, Dorothea Klumpke Roberts (1861-1942) wrote, "(Mrs. Isaac Roberts) Villa Rosa Bonheur France By-Thomery S. et M. [Seine-et-marne]"
Dorothea Klumpke (1861-1942)
In 1893, she was the first woman to receive a doctorate in the sciences from the Sorbonne. (Possibly the first woman ever to get a doctorate in the sciences [not including mathematics] but I am having some difficulty confirming that.)
She was an astronomer at the Paris Observatory who became the Director of the Bureau of Measurements. She was one of the key participants in the Carte-du-Ciel program. Her research involved astrophotography, measuring star positions, stellar spectroscopy, meteoritical research, and eclipse expeditions.
With her late husband Isaac Roberts (also a notable astronomer, who died in 1904), she had photographed all 52 of the nebulae recorded by Herschel. Her publication of the atlas of these objects in 1929 earned her the Hèléne-Paul Helbronner prize from the French Academy of Sciences.
She endowed the Klumpke-Roberts Award for contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, which is still awarded annually by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. (Chris Impey, friend of the Vatican Observatory, received the award in 2016.) She also endowed the Prix Dorothea Klumpke-Isaac Roberts for the study of nebulae, which is awarded biannually by the French Academy of Sciences.
She received several honors, including the French Legion of Honor. Two asteroids are named for her: (339) Dorothea and (1040) Klumpkea.
Religious Scientists: Msgr. Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), Father of the Big Bang
Many thanks to Dominique Lambert, who provided me with several articles and a full biography that were used to create this post.
Georges Lemaître was a priest of the diocese of Louvain, in Belgium. The proposer of what would become known as the Big Bang Theory was one of the more influential astrophysicists of his lifetime. Albert Einstein even once skipped one of his own public appearances in order to converse with Lemaître over deep cosmological problems.
Fr. Georges Lemaître with Albert Einstein
Biographical Sketch:
Georges Lemaître was born July 17, 1894 in the mining town of Charleroi, Belgium. He studied at the Jesuit school Collège du Sacre Coeur, and then prepared to study mining engineering, as was typical of bright students in the area. With the advent of World War I, he enlisted and served with the artillery, where he received a formal reprimand for correcting an error in the artillery manual. After his discharge, he decided to study physics and mathematics.
In 1920 he went to the seminary for late vocations, and was ordained a priest in 1923.
With a fellowship to study abroad, he went to Cambridge University for a year, where he studied under Sir Arthur Eddington and developed an interest in cosmological models in Einstein’s general relativity. Then, after a brief stint in Canada, he went to the Harvard College Observatory to continue his studies with Harlow Shapley. Since the Harvard Observatory did not have a PhD program, he registered at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) [my alma mater!], where he completed his doctorate.
In 1925, Lemaître learned of Hubble’s measurement of the distances to several galaxies, which confirmed that they were outside the Milky Way. Visiting Caltech, he learned about cosmic rays from Milliken. On a visit to the Lowell Observatory, he also learned of redshift measurements to galaxies.
Combining these data led to his 1927 paper in which he posited his model of the expanding universe from a primordial atom, with a section in which he proposed a velocity-distance relationship between the galaxies due to this expansion. The paper was originally published in Belgium, in French. In 1929, Hubble published his own velocity-distance relationship, which became known as Hubble’s Law.
With the help of Eddington, Lemaître’s paper was republished in English in 1931. The paper, with its cosmological model of the “primordial atom,” established his fame as an astrophysicist. However, Lemaître omitted the part with the velocity-distance relation because he considered the data to be outdated and inaccurate. Thus, Hubble continued to receive all the credit for that law until recently.
(Left) Lemaître’s original 1927 paper, published in the Annals of the Scientific Society of Brussels. (Right) the 1931 translation, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
His priestly life was also quite active. Though a diocesan priest, he was a member of a priestly fraternity Amis de Jesus, and had pronounced vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. His commitments included an hour of private prayer daily and an annual 10-day silent retreat. While at Harvard/MIT, he was a regular celebrant at St. Paul’s. Back in Louvain, he was heavily involved in chaplaincy to Chinese students. (He had learned Chinese several years before).
Lemaitre's signature in the Vatican Observatory guest book, 31 May 1937, along with Hugh Stott Taylor, Peter Debye, and others. This was the day before the formal inauguration of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on 1 June 1937.
In 1936, Lemaître was one of the foundational members of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, and he would become its president in 1960. He was present at the 1951 meeting of the Academy when Pope Pius XII said that the science of the day “has succeeded in being a witness to that primordial Fiat Lux.” Lemaître had a healthy respect for the autonomy of science from theological considerations and was aware of the perils of equating the hypothesis of the primordial atom with the theological moment of Creation, both for science and for theology. With the help of Fr. Daniel O’Connell SJ (director of the Vatican Observatory), he intervened with the Pope in 1952 to prevent any formal declaration of his theory as evidence for Biblical Creation.
Bust of Georges Lemaitre at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (with Fr. Gabriele Gionti SJ of the Vatican Observatory)
Georges Lemaître suffered a heart attack in 1964, and was rehospitalized in June of 1966. In the hospital, his friend Odon Godart informed him of the discovery by Penzias and Wilson of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which confirmed the theory of the expansion of the universe from the Big Bang. Days later, on June 20, 1966, he died.
Scientific Contributions:
Lemaître’s key scientific contribution was the hypothesis of the primordial atom, what has become known as the Big Bang theory. He had a remarkable ability to synthesize information and carry it further. His cosmological model came directly from Einstein’s equations, and combined the solutions of Einstein and de Sitter. This hybrid model started in a completely filled, homogeneous, static state (the “primordial atom”), expanding from there toward a perpetually expanding final state moving toward zero mass density.
He was not the first to develop this solution to the equations; the Russian physicist Alexander Friedmann proposed the same mathematical solution several years before. However, Lemaître was the first the see the cosmological implications of this solution, and to connect it with astronomical data. He also considered the expansion of the universe (two years in advance of Hubble’s work on the topic) and estimated the age of the universe based on that. From various considerations, he estimated it must be between 10-100 billion years old.
While Lemaître’s solution was derived scientifically, from the equations and astronomical observations, his primary detractors tended to base their objections on anti-theological grounds. Detractors such as Fred Hoyle insisted on a static, infinitely old universe. A universe that had an origin in time implied for them a Creator, which they were not willing to consider. Hoyle even created a joke name for the theory to diminish its importance. He called it the “Big Bang theory.” (I should note that despite their disagreements, Lemaître and Hoyle were friends and even went on vacation together!)
Lemaître’s specific solution--which paused its expansion for a bit to form galaxies before expanding further--was dependent on the existence of a non-zero cosmological constant. Einstein had attempted to discard the cosmological constant after it was discovered that the universe was not static, but Lemaître continued to advocate for its inclusion. In recent years, with the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, it would seem his advocacy has been vindicated.
His cosmological theory also fed Lemaître’s interest in high-energy cosmic rays, the origins of which were unknown. He hypothesized that cosmic rays were the result of the disintegration of the primordial atom. This hypothesis was ultimately disproven, but his interest led to several contributions to the understanding of contributions and their interaction with the Earth’s magnetic field.
Lemaître made several contributions in mathematics. He contributed to the theory of spinors for the use of physical calculations. He also was interested in numerical methods for solving complicated equations. He developed many mathematical methods to aid in the calculation of numerical solutions. One such technique was effectively the same as the Fast Fourier Transform, which came several decades later. Even though the taught the method to his students, who in turn taught it to theirs, he never published it.
He also was an early proponent of the use of calculating machines to aid in finding numerical solutions to physical problems. As early as the 1930s, he made use of the differential analyzer of Vannevar Bush at MIT. At Louvain, he founded the Laboratory of Numerical Research, the first computer laboratory in Belgium. With his nephew Gilbert, he developed a computer language called AUTOCODE.
Lemaître also contributed to the three-body problem in physics by finding a coordinate shift that simplified the calculations.
There is a lunar crater named for him, and also the asteroid (1565) Lemaître. The ESA's unmanned Automated Transfer Vehicle 5 (ATV-5), launched to the International Space Station in 2014, was named Georges Lemaître.
The Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric in general relativity bears his name.
In 2018, the International Astronomical Union voted to add Lemaître’s name to the Hubble Law of the expansion of the universe. (You can read our blog post about the Hubble-Lemaître Law.)
For further reading: Dominique Lambert. The Atom of the Universe: The Life and Work of Georges Lemaître.(Krakow: Copernicus Center Press, 2015)
Specola Guestbook: April 27, 1908
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from April 27, 1908, when Simon Newcomb made a visit.
Next to his name Simon Newcomb (1835-1909) wrote, "Professor U.S.N. [United States Navy], Washington D.C." He was an astronomer and mathematician who served as the director of the National Almanac Office and later as a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University and in the U.S. Navy.
Simon Newcomb (1835-1909); credit Library of Congress
Among his astronomical contributions, he was primarily interested in celestial mechanics, planetary motion, and improving navigation. He published a book on ephemerides, entitled Tables of the Sun, that became the official international standard basis for related astronomical constants. He corrected a table of lunar positions by incorporating data going back to 1672.
He also made a few other contributions. He collaborated with Albert Michelson (of Michelson-Morley fame) to measure the speed of light. He used the small Chandler wobble effect to estimate the elasticity of the Earth. He also dabbled in statistics, economics, and other fields.
He is the author of the science fiction novel, "His Wisdom the Defender"
There are lunar and martian craters that bear his name, as well as the asteroid (855) Newcombia.
He was also a bit odd. He is said to have sabotaged the career of the philosopher C.S. Peirce, and he served as the first president of the American Society for Psychical Research (but as a skeptic).
IAU Executive Committee meets at Vatican Observatory
Written by Fr. Peter Lah, SJ
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) executive committee visited the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana) on May 15th, 2019. The 23-member group included the executive committee members (13), division presidents (8) and two general secretariat staff. They held three working sessions on the premises of the Specola, followed by the tour of the permament exhibition in the telescope domes of Villa Barberini. The visit concluded with a dinner where they and their spouses were greeted by members of the Jesuit community.
IAU Executive Committee, accompanied by a few Jesuits from the Vatican Observatory, visiting our telescope domes in the Pontifical Villas. (Photo by Peter Lah SJ)
On Monday, May 13, the IAU executive committee met at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome. Fr. Paul Mueller, the vice director of the Specola, gave a talk on the history of Vatican Observatory's relationship with the Union. The Accademia dei Lincei is the place of the first IAU General Assembly in 1922, during which meeting the participants also visited the Vatican Observatory in its location in Vatican City.
The Eighth IAU General Assembly also met in Rome, in September of 1952. At that occasion they were received by Pope Pius XII at the summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. This visit was accompanied by another visit to the Observatory, which had moved to that location in 1935.
The International Astronomical Union was founded in 1919. It traces its roots back to the first multi-national project in astronomy, called the "Carte du Ciel" project that produced a complete photografic map of the sky. During their latest visit, the IAU visitors were excited to see the original telescope that was recently restored.
The Vatican Observatory was a partner to the Carte du Ciel project. Its astronomers - Jesuit fathers, religious sisters and lay staff - dedicated decades' worth of research to it. The original photographic plates are currently being digitalized and analyzed by its staff astronomer don Alessandro Omizzolo.
Specola Guestbook: April 24, 1908
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints.
Today's guestbook entry is from April 24, 1908, when Elis Strömgren made a visit.
Next to his name, Svante Elis Strömgren (1870-1947) wrote, "Professor an der Universität, Kopenhagen" (Professor at the University of Copenhagen). He was a noteworthy astronomer who in 1907 became director of the Observatory of Copenhagen. His area of interest was primarily celestial mechanics, and he computed orbits for several comets. The asteroid (1422) Stromgrenia is named for him.
What makes him particularly notable, however, is not his own contribution but that of his children.
Bengt Strömgren (1908-1987) made several significant advances in astrophysics, including the measurement of elemental composition of stars: 70% hydrogen, 27% helium, and the remaining 3% everything else. I will write more about him in a future post, as he also signed our guestbook several decades later.
Erik Strömgren (1909-1993) was a notable psychiatrist who made several advances in bringing psychiatry up to the level of modern science. He introduced the concept of psychogenic psychosis. He also instituted a cross-sectional epidemiological survey of psychiatric patients in Denmark that has continued every 5 years since 1957. The Strömgren medal in psychiatry is awarded annually in his honor.
Specola Guestbook: April 9 1907
Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. This is the first post in a new series that will highlight some of these notable visitors.
Today's guestbook entry is from April 9, 1907. On that day, H. A. Lorentz signed the book.
Hendrik A. Lorentz (credit Museum Boerhaave)
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853-1928) was a Dutch physicist at the University of Leiden. In his inscription, he wrote "Hoogleeraar aan de Universiteit te Leiden" (Professor at the University of Leiden). He is notable for two significant contributions. (Well, he has a list of significant contributions and various things that bear his name, but two are most significant.)
First, he developed a theory to explain the Zeeman effect; i.e. the splitting of spectral lines in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The splitting is due to the effect of the magnetic field on the energy levels of the two spin states of the two electrons that occupy one atomic orbital. The effect is useful for determining the strength of a magnetic field in astrophysical sources. For this, he and Pieter Zeeman (who discovered the effect) received the Nobel prize in 1902.
The second significant contribution is the coordinate transformations that one finds in Einstein's relativity theory, known as Lorentz transformations. Anyone who has done a basic course in special relativity will be familiar with the Lorentz factor that one finds in all of these coordinate transformations.
that one finds in all of these coordinate transformations.There is a lunar crater named Lorentz after him.
Religious Scientists: abbot Gregor J. Mendel O.S.A. (1822-1884), Father of Genetics
Gregor Johann Mendel OSA
Back when I taught an introductory-level astronomy class at university, I would start the course with a short unit on what science is and on the relationship between faith and science. I would mention Gregor Mendel as an example of a religious scientist because anyone who has taken high school biology knows the name. So then I would ask the class what they know about him.
“Father of genetics,” one person would say.
Another student would pipe in, “He was a monk!”
A third would offer something about “<mumble, mumble> pea plants.”
At this point, I would then ask, “Okay, so given what you know about him, what do you think his job (his daily work) at the monastery was?”
Every time I taught this unit, and almost every time I have brought up this example with peers (there’s always someone who spoils the trend eventually), I got the response, “He was the gardener.”
It makes a certain sort of sense. We think of monks as living a quiet, simple life. Pea plants plus simple living must equal gardening, right? I think we develop a picture in our heads of a monk quietly at work in the garden, and one day he suddenly notices that baby pea plants inherit certain traits from their parent plants. “Golly gee, would ya lookit that!” we imagine him saying (in a quiet whisper, of course), and from this event genetics is born (somehow).
Gregor Mendel
The reality of Gregor Mendel’s life, his work, and even the monastery in which he lived is far, far from this idyllic picture I have just painted. Take a look at his photo, and ask yourself, “does this look like a simple gardener?”
The fact is, Gregor Mendel was a scientist, and the monastery in which he lived was involved in scientific research, particularly in agricultural research. He was actively studying the inheritance of traits, for which he painstakingly cultivated and interbred over 28,000 plants. We know of his work because he published his findings in scientific journals. To be fair, in his research he made extensive use of the monastery’s garden, but he was no mere gardener.
Biographical Sketch
Johann Mendel was born in 1822 into a relatively poor farming family in what is today the Czech republic. After initial education at the University of Olomouc, he entered the Augustinian monastery of St. Thomas in Brno (Brünn) in 1843, where he took the name Gregor. He intended to be a teacher, but failed the requisite teaching exams.
He was ordained a priest in 1847. In 1851, Mendel continued his education in physics, mathematics, and natural history at the University of Vienna. After he returned, he began researching the heredity of traits in pea and other plants.
In 1868, he became the abbot of the monastery at Brno. Taking on such administrative duties meant the end of active research for him. (Readers who are in academia will understand.) This period was marked by a bitter dispute with the civil government over taxation of the monastery. After his death in 1884, his successor burned all his papers, including his notes (probably to avoid further complications with the tax issue).
Scientific Research
Mendel chose to focus his research efforts on the heredity of traits at the suggestion of fellow monks. The monastery was involved in the raising of merino sheep for wool, and was concerned with whether inherited traits would breed true. He chose to study plants rather than sheep because they offered several advantages, including short time between generations and the ability to control fertilization.
In his research, he cultivated and bred over 28,000 plants—mostly but not exclusively peas—studying seven traits ranging from plant size to pod color and pea texture. From this work, he derived his laws of the inheritance of traits. I won’t go into detail on these laws here; an interested reader can just pick up any high school biology text. Or just do a quick Google search—here is one site, sponsored by Palomar College.
"Experiments in Plant Hybridization"
Mendel published his findings in 1866, in an article entitled “Experiments in Plant Hybridization” (“Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden”) in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn. The publication was fairly obscure. Nevertheless, when in 1900 Hugo de Vries, Karl Correns, and E. von Tschermak independently published on the same topic, they each cited his earlier paper, thus marking the beginning of his reputation as the “Father of Genetics.”
Mendel’s research was not limited to the study of plant heredity. He also bred bees, though little information remains about the results of that research. Furthermore, he carried out some research in meteorology and, yes, astronomy as well. He cofounded the Natural History Society of Brünn in 1861, and the Austrian Meteorological Society in 1865.
Just to keep this topic vaguely astronomical, I should also mention that there is a lunar crater named after Gregor Mendel, as well as the asteroid (3313) Mendel.
I had the pleasure of visiting Brno a couple years ago. The site of the old monastery is now the property of Masaryk University, but they have maintained it well, with a museum and visitors' center. Here are a few photos I took:
Monastery at Brno
Statue of Mendel
Mendel's Eyeglasses
Manuscript of "Experiments in Plant Hybridization"
Small pea garden near Cafe Mendel
Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of Astrophysics
(This is the first article in the column “Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church” which looks at the lives and contributions of prominent vowed religious scientists.)
Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ (1818-1878)
The year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ, and so there have already been several articles on Fr. Secchi in this blog. An interested reader could review any of these articles:
“Ghost of elements, spectres of the universe: Angelo Secchi SJ” by Michelle Francl, Aug 8, 2018.
“Solar Prominences and a Prominent Jesuit Astronomer” by Robert Macke, Oct 23, 2018.
“Happy Birthday to the Father of Astrophysics!” by Guy Consolmagno, June 28, 2018.
And outside the blog, here’s another article I wrote about Secchi’s oceanographic studies:
For the YouTube generation, here is a video to watch:
Why begin this series with a scientist for whom so much has already been written? Why not start with someone else? One motivation is to strike while the iron is hot--while the name Secchi is still somewhat familiar to readers. But more importantly, he made so many contributions in so many different fields, and yet he is almost unknown to the world today.
With anticlericalism very strong in Italy at the end of the 19thcentury, his status as a priest and his connection to the Vatican were reason enough to suppress his memory and scientific legacy. On top of that, his rivalry with Norman Lockyer (the founder of the journal Nature) led to none of his works being published in English.
This is a legacy that needs to be resurrected. In my opinion, the name Secchi should be a household term alongside Newton, Kepler, and Galileo.
Secchi's observatory built atop the Church of St. Ignatius
Secchi also makes a great starting point because the connection between his scientific work and his religious life is explicit. He was the director of the observatory of the Roman College, which was the Papal observatory of his day, thus making him "the Pope's astronomer." During his tenure as director, he had the observatory moved to a more stable platform: the roof of the church of Saint Ignatius. One could say he literally built his scientific work upon the foundation of the Church!
Because there is already much content available on this blog regarding Fr. Secchi, I will skip his biographical sketch and try to keep the rest of this entry short. Here is a summary of some of his scientific contributions:
Astrophysics: He was one of the first to systematically study the spectra of stars. He made spectroscopic observations of over 4000 stars and classified them by type. This early work was the foundation upon which the Harvard Observatory built the spectral classification system that we use today.
More importantly, Secchi was one of the few astronomers of his day who tried to understand the physical nature of stars at a time when astronomy was concerned with measuring their positions and proper motions. He attempted to identify and quantify the presence of chemical elements such as helium and carbon in starlight.
Solar Physics: Secchi made myriad observations of the Sun in diverse ways. He took spectra of the solar atmosphere, corona, and prominences. He made numerous observations of sunspots. During eclipses, he photographed solar prominences. When compared with photos taken by collaborators separated by hundreds of kilometers, the photographs matched, thus confirming that prominences are a real solar phenomenon and not an illusion due to atmospheric effects.
He published his work in a book Le Soleil (1870), which quickly became the European standard for solar astronomy and was translated (from the original French) into German and Italian. (As mentioned previously, his work was never translated into English.)
Planetary Science: Secchi was among the first to examine planets as other worlds to study. He took spectra of the atmospheres of many of them. He viewed Mars through the telescope and noted its surface features. He corresponded with the famous astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who adopted his use of the term “canali” for dark channel-like Martian surface features.
(This later became mistranslated as "canals" by the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who imagined a dying Martian civilization constructing globe-spanning engineering works to bring scarce water to their cities. This idea became popularized in the John Carter series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The idea of water-bearing "canals" finally was put to rest with the visit of the Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965.)
Terrestrial Magnetism: In 1853, Secchi established the first geomagnetic observatory in Italy. He had a laboratory constructed with several instruments for measuring the strength and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and how it varies with time. He made connections between variations in the field and various and solar activity. The legacy of his research lives today in the study of “space weather.”
Meteorology: Secchi was interested in atmospheric physics and the connection between atmospheric phenomena and other phenomena, such as solar activity. He invented a device, called the “meteorograph,” to measure and record several relevant parameters for this study.
He also developed a network of weather stations throughout Italy, connected by telegraph. This network was nationalized by the Italian government in 1876.
Geography: Secchi conducted a geodetic survey of the via Appia Antica, one of the main roads leading to Rome and an important base for many of the maps of Italy of the day.
Secchi disk as offered for sale at lyonscientific.com
Oceanography / Limnology: At the invitation of Commander Alexander Cialdi of the Pontifical Navy, aboard the corvette Immacolata Concezione, Secchi carried out experiments on the measurement of the clarity of ocean water. He lowered brightly colored disks into the water until they were no longer visible, and developed a standard for this measurement and its interpretation. Even today, water clarity is assessed by lowering bright white or black-and-white disks—called “Secchi disks”—into the water.
Religious Scientists – An Introduction
As this is a new column for the blog, it might be appropriate to begin with a small introduction.
In the motu proprio "Ut Mysticam"—the document establishing the Vatican Observatory in 1891—Pope Leo XIII wrote that the reason for creating such an institution in the Vatican was “…that everyone might see clearly that the Church and her Pastors are not opposed to true and solid science, whether human or divine, but that they embrace it, encourage it, and promote it with the fullest possible dedication.”
Primarily, the Vatican Observatory addresses this mission through its scientific endeavors. We are all vowed religious members of the Catholic Church who are respected scientists making valuable contributions in our fields. Through this we are a sign to the world of the compatibility of faith and science through the example of our own lives.
It would be a mistake to think that the Vatican Observatory serves as the only such example of science performed in the context of consecrated life. The goal of this column will be to call attention to the myriad other priests and religious who have made significant scientific contributions, and form part of the tradition from which the Vatican Observatory arose.
The first few articles will look at scientists whose names are already familiar from this blog or elsewhere, such as Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ (pioneer of astrophysics and stellar spectroscopy), Msgr. Georges Lemaître (who proposed the Big Bang theory), and abbot Gregor Mendel OSA (father of genetics). In time, you will be introduced to other scientists who may be less familiar, such as Fr. Dominic Troili SJ, for whom the meteoritic mineral troilite is named. Each installment will include a short biography and description of their important scientific contribution.
From personal bias, there will naturally be an abundance of Jesuits and astronomer/astrophysicists. However, I would like to represent a breadth of Catholic religious orders (and diocesan priests) as well as scientific fields outside of astronomy. In particular, I would like to recognize women religious who have made important scientific contributions. Among these are Sr. Mary Kenneth Keller BVM (pioneer in computer science), and Sr. Miriam Stimson OP (a chemist who contributed to understanding the structure of DNA).
I am open to hearing suggestions for people to include in this column.