Daniel Kirkwood

The following year, 1834, Kirkwood enrolled himself at the York County of Academy, at York Pennsylvania, majoring in Mathematics. After four years of mastering his major, he graduated and was immediately appointed first assistant and instructor in mathematics. He held this position for five years, until 1843, until he became Principal of the Lancaster Pennsylvania High School, and it was here in the year 1845 that he married his wife, Sarah A. McNair of Newton, Pennsylvania. And after another five years in Lancaster Pennsylvania, he moved to the Pottsville Academy in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, to become the Principal.

His teaching years extended for three decades more, in the year 1851, he became Professor of Mathematics in Delaware College, and again in Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he remained until he retired in 1886, with the exemption of years 1865-1867, where he shared his knowledge in Mathematics at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. At the age of seventy-seven, he moved to Riverside, California together with his wife, Sarah A. McNair. In Stanford University, he was named non-resident lecturer of Astronomy. Here, he was very popular to his pupils, with them citing him to be an inspiration for them to broaden their interest in the matter learning in general, and not only the love of mathematics. Although he was considered a devout Presbyterian, this never caused any conflict in his studies.

His works in mathematics appeared early on in his learning years. His first noted publication appeared in the year 1848, which consisted of demonstrations ?that the square of the number of rotations per orbital revolution of a planet is proportional to the cube of the radius of the sphere of attraction given by the Laplace nebular hypothesis?. His other known works, like the ?Kepler-type? law and the nebular hypothesis has shown to need several amendments.

Many of his works have been used in today?s scientific literature to verify and slightly modify the Nebular Hypothesis. But perhaps his most important work, the ?gaps? or ?chasms? in the distribution of the mean distances of the asteroids from the sun, was discovered as early as 1857, when on fifty asteroids were known. All in all, he wrote 129 publications, including three books, two of which are his books entitled Meteoric Astronomy (1867) and Comets and Meteors (1873). In his honor, Indiana University named their observatory after him, the Kirkwood Observatory. Kirkwood died in Riverside, California on June 11, 1895. He was buried alongside his wife and daughter in Rose Hill Cemetery, Bloomington, Indiana.

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Johann Gottfried Galle

A mere 1 degree away was the discrepancy from the calculations of Le Verrier. This was an astounding discovery for the astronomers. His discovery was almost hindered by the Director of the Cambridge Observatory, James Callis when he refused to allow Galle to utilize the observatory?s equipment so as to assist in locating the celestial body that Le Verrier wrote about.

He diligently worked at the Breslau Observatory and became a professor in astronomy in 1851. Throughout his life as an astronomer, he pursued the study of the comets. His son, Andreas Galle, also took an inclination to the sciences and the principles of astronomy. He became an assistant to his father when he published a list of 414 comets in 1894. In less than a year, from December 1839 to March 1840, he discovered 3 comets in quick succession. To honor Johann Gottfried Galle, two craters were named after him, the two being craters found on the moon and one on Mars which resembled a happy face. The asteroid 2097 Galle and the ring of Neptune named after him. For his extraordinary contributions, especially in the study of the comets, he received great honor.

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He yielded such an extraordinary research with his use of pendulums in the top and bottom of a mine. His first two attempts, though were a failure having met with unfortunate natural disasters, he was prompted to relocate to a different mining area where he obtained the figures 6.566 as the earth?s specific density. Though later on this value may be changed, his contributions that Greenwich as the location of the prime meridian, is still a generally known fact taught in textbooks and schools today.

As a child, he became admirable to his peers for his skilled work for making peashooters. In college, he entered Trinity College as a sizar, exchanging work hours for tuition fee reduction. It was in this noble structure that he established his brilliance, having been a scholar, and a receiver of the Smith?s prize, and the title senior wrangler, the highest scoring student graduating with first-class honors.

He acquired various positions that led him to be a remarkable person in mathematics and astronomy. Being the astronomer royal, president of the royal society, a knight of the order of the bath, made him a very successful and well-respected man. He was also elected four times to be the president of the Royal Astronomical Society. Today, his name is etched on significant researches and studies; he is named after theories and honored for his contributions, such as the Airy stress function method, Martian crater airy, lunar crater airy, air wave theory and the term Airy disc. His most valuable achievement of all is his discovery of the new inequality in the motions of Venus and the Earth.

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Johannes Kepler

This exceptionally gifted-man, at an early age, manifested interest in Astronomical activities such as the Supernova in 1577 and a lunar eclipse in 1580. It has to be taken into account that Johannes had chickenpox when he was still young and that impaired his vision and hands such that it also limited opportunities to engage in astronomy?related activities. Nevertheless, this did not hinder him to be responsible for some contributions in Science.

Kepler was able to study at the University of Tubingen through the help of the duke. There, he learned languages, Mathematics and Astronomy. One of his professors in Astronomy is Michael Mastlin who, at that time, supported the Copernican theory, which was then widely accepted by most people. Later on, he pursued Theology and establishment commitment to the Christian faith. Years after, he was asked to teach Math in Graz, Austria.

The position that was offered to him required him to do land-surveying and calendar-making. During that time, Astrology was given regard such that people are made to believe that their lives depend on the stars. Kepler published a book sometime in 1601 which gave way to the rejections of superstitions. He negated that people?s lives depend on the stars. He also studied the long term accuracy of astrology as such it was recorded that trusting on astrology alone would entail risks.

Johannes Kepler is widely known due to his Laws of Planetary Motion. This had three laws which made use of Tycho Brahe?s observations in his further analysis. For his personal life, he had two marriages with Barbara ? an arranged marriage; second was with Susanna ? for practical purposes of taking care of his kids. He died on November 15, 1630 because of a fever, but he left theories and writings that have contributed so much to Science.

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Sir Isaac Newton was born on January 4, 1643; however, December 25, 1642 is his recorded date of birth as the Gregorian calendar was not yet adopted. He was named after his father, a peasant who died three days before he was born. He lived with his mother, Hannah Ayscough who later on remarried, which caused him to be taken care of by his grandmother. He had a relationship but there were no records that he got married as he was so engrossed with his studies. When his stepfather passed away, he was required by his mom to go on farming which he disliked. As fortune would have it, Henry Strokes, who was a master at King?s School (his old school) persuaded his mother to let him study again. Because he was motivated, he had good grades that made him on top of his class.

Sir Isaac?s first contribution was mathematical fluxions, which later on was improved and became known as Integral and Differential Calculus. His inventions gave way to various accomplishments and served as patterns in solving other problems and creating new formulae. Another famous contribution was the Law of Gravity. The genius saw an apple falling that made him think if the same also applies to the Moon.

He was also the proponent of the three Laws of Motion which state that (first) an object that remains at rest stay at rest and an object is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force upon it or simply the Law of Inertia; (second) acceleration is produced when a force acts on a mass; thus, the more mass the object has, the more force has to be applied. Here, the relationship among force, mass and acceleration is considered; and (third) for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Sir Isaac Newton died in his sleep. His body was recorded to have had Mercury in it, which could have been the reason why he seemed to be a very strange man. His works will forever live as everything that people do can be well explained by his laws.

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Born in Arbergen, Germany on October 11, 1758, this man took his love for the heavenly bodies to the next level. For instance, even if he was busy studying medicine and a mathematical course, he was still devoting himself to his passion. When he was 21, he knew that even comets have orbits and he even came up with a technique to calculate them and he did all that while waiting beside a friend's sickbed. So not only was he the guy who was obsessed with stars, but he was a pretty good friend too! It is probably good karma, considering that this method developed by Olbers is still used up to this day! Never sleeping for more than four hours everyday, it is no surprise that Olbers discovered two asteroids Pallas and Vesta. He also played a huge role in the redetection of the planet Ceres by 1802. Thirteen years later, 1815, Olbers at 87, finally had a comet named after him, truly marking his place in the world of astronomy. Clearly, this man, who has turned his attic into an observatory for his studies, is more than remarkable, truly, one of the most devoted astronomers to have ever lived.

Though anyone might assume that Olbers spent his time just gazing up on the sky, he spent his days being a good, productive citizen. Not only did he become part of a legislative body in France from 1812-1813, but earlier that year, he was also delegated to play a part in the baptism of Rome's king by 1811. A man for the heavens and a man for the world. Wilhelm Olbers is one astronomer that definitely made a difference in his entire lifetime.

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During this phase, Bessel had been struck by the peculiar knack for measuring the positions of stars. Later on, the first usage of parallax to compute a change of a star’s location as a result of the earth’s orbiting around the sun will be accredited to him. His first major attempt was basing his studies on a previous astronomer’s observations, particularly that of Halley’s Comet. He sends his work over to another German astronomer who bears a similar name like his, but is told to improve on his work. Taking Wilhelm Olbers’ advice, he doubles the effort and finally, he gets to publish. That is when he is recommended by the same superior to take an apprenticeship at the Lilienthal Observatory. After four years, he moves to Konigsberg Observatory permanently, but not as an assistant, but as a director. When he was 26, he taught astronomy at its university. Seven years later, he regulated the Bessel Functions, formerly discovered by a Dutch-Swiss mathematician.

Bessel proved to be such a devout astronomer that he even predicted Neptune’s existence after his death! After measuring the positions of 50,000 stars with accuracy and even taking note of the smallest motions of one star from another, Bessel has laid the fundamentals necessary for instituting the universe’s scale. Obviously, the sky is definitely not the limit. 1938, Finnish astronomer had named 1552 Bessel in Friedrich’s honor.

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Encke distinguished himself for his scrutiny of short period comets. Though a French astronomer had discovered Encke's Comet, it was named after Encke for having predicted its return accurately. Similar to this, though an American astronomer had discovered the particular gap on Saturn's A and F Ring, it was named in Encke's honor due to his observations of the Rings. One of his many credentials include being a professor in the University of Berlin, became the director of the Seeburg observatory where he used to work as an assistant and because of his prediction regarding Encke's Comet, the Royal Astronomical Society has awarded him a Gold Medal and he also became the secretary of the Academy of Sciences. Johan Encke had contributed a lot to astronomy literature. One would think that his marriage to Amalie Becker, who was a daughter of a bookseller, might have given him a huge advantage with regards several of his works.

When Encke was not teaching at the University of Berlin, he was busy observing asteroid activity. By 72, due to a horrid brain disease, he had been forced to take a back seat from his active lifestyle. But he is a man not to be stopped, for he still remained a director of the Berlin observatory till his death. Johan Encke clearly depicts a man who has been completely devoted to his passion. In the world of astronomy, he is a name worthy of remembrance.

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Apparently, his peculiar interest was not just plain observing and star-gazing. He had caught Thomas Young's eye, when he, this man who in his luxury hours was developing his skills in astronomy and mathematics, had managed to develop a way of using the moon's occultation to measure longitude. With Mister Young's guidance, the eager Henderson was more than willing to explore his true desire to learn more about heavenly bodies. During the 1800s, he had made remarkable observations when he was based in South Africa. It did not take long since then that he had managed to use parallax to measure the southern Centaurus' brightest star, Alpha Centauri's distance to the Earth. Little did he know that publishing this was going to be a semi-competition, considering that another astronomer from Germany had also done his own parallax measurement for another star.

Thomas Jane Henderson returned to his roots and goes back to Scotland, but does not resume legal profession. Though he may not have received the first world-wide acclaim for the parallax with the Alpha Centauri, Scotland was more than thankful to have him back home. He will always be Scotland's number one, and just to prove it, he is appointed the first Astronomer Royal for Scotland. After serving for the University of Edinburgh, he had worked at the City Observatory of Edinburgh until he passed away.

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This man whose complete name is Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de? Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy on February 15, 1564. He was the eldest among the six children of Vincenzo Galilei, who was then a composer and music theorist, and Giulia Ammannati. He had a relationship with Marina Gamba to whom he bore three kids, but the sad part is that they never got married. Tracing early college days, he originally wanted to pursue priesthood, but due to the request of his father, he enrolled at the University of Pisa for a medical degree; however, he didn?t continue it and pursued Mathematics instead.

The first person to make use of the Telescope was Galileo. He made this to study the heavens. During this time, he wanted to show to the Church what could be seen on the Telescope, the Church refused, as they believed that it might be the Devil who lets him see anything on it. Through this device, he was able to see Sunspots or dark patches on the Sun and that its motion indicates the Sun is rotating on its axis. Are you familiar with the Galilean Moons? These are the four brightest moons of Jupiter that orbit around the planet Jupiter. On the other hand, he also stated that the planet Venus has undergone complete phase same as that of the Moon. He also made observations which oppose findings of other astronomers.

He claimed that the planets were disks, the Milky Way was composed of very big stars, and Saturn had ?ears? as he recognized those, but they were actually rings, and the Moon was not smooth as it had craters. Aside from his contributions in the field of Astronomy, he also had for Physics, which had something to do with the Laws of Motion and Inertia, which was continued by other astronomers, and Kinematics which states that the total distance is proportional to the square of the time. It is also essential to note that he has gone blind most probably after many times he studied and looked at the Sun through his telescope.

There had been arguments between Galileo and the Church for opposing and challenging Aristotelian theories of the Universe. This had put him into a dilemma and was obliged to take back all he had supported and put him under house arrest. Likewise, he was accused of being guilty for heresy. It was believed that this Science hero died of natural causes on January 8, 1642.

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