Caroline Lucretia Herschel was born on March 16, 1750 in Hanover, Prussia. Daughter of Isaac Herschel and Anna Ilse Moritzen. Although his father, a musician, never made official studies, maintained throughout his life a concern by various branches of knowledge, and thus sought a multifaceted education to their four sons, teaching music, math, astronomy, philosophy and French. For his part, his two daughters, as was customary at the time, were destined not to learn but housework.
But Caroline soon showed interest in the conversations that took place between his father and brothers. In their eagerness to learn, soon found support from his father, but in return was opposed by his mother, who in keeping with the ideas of his time, considered unfeminine occupation all involves thinking. So more or less openly, his father began to make Caroline share his knowledge. She remembers in his memoirs the night his father showed him the first constellations, as well as a comet was then visible. Caroline Little did she became the first woman in history to discover a comet.
When the French occupied Hanover in 1757, his father went to war. His brother William Herschel, with whom he shared his concerns astronomical Caroline, moved to England as a musician. Caroline thus came under the tutelage of her mother sent her to learn to knit and cut off by the time their ability to engage in astronomy or any activity of an intellectual nature. Because of the malformation which caused the typhus at the age of ten poorly measured 1.30 m, soon gave up trying to marry Caroline, and actually never did, which always retained the name Herschel.
Thus, their desire for independence was realized only when, at the age of twenty years, his brother William took with him to England. So while dealing with the maintenance of the house of William, he resumed his two great passions: music and astronomy. Respect the first, became a leading soprano. And on the second, soon began with his brother to polishing mirrors for the construction of telescopes, and also help in the documentation and review of their observations, applying mathematical knowledge had been acquired. Soon became a disciple of his brother collaborator. Both were involved, then, to astronomy and amateur, while William was still working as a musician. When he made in 1781 the discovery of the planet Uranus, King George III of England granted a salary of 200 pounds per year that allowed him to devote himself entirely to astronomy, which also Caroline made this commitment.
To William was invaluable mathematical treatment that his sister had the data he obtained. In fact, only when William was away Caroline could devote himself fully to his own observations, and that was how he began to make their first discoveries of nebulae. Several deep sky objects were found and, when it arrived on August 1, 1786, the first comet discovered Caroline. This earned him an annual salary of £ 50 by George III and the recognition of the scientific authorities of the time, they welcomed with suspicion and wonder about others, something as unprecedented as the scientific work of a woman.
work continued for years nebulae cataloging, calculating the positions of their findings and those of his brother. Their calculations were always remarkable accuracy. Discovered eight comets in total between 1786 and 1797. She later moved to review and order the John Flamsteed's star catalog in 1798 and sent to the Royal Astronomical Society its "Index of Fixed Stars observations of Flamsteed" with a list of 560 stars that he had omitted.
When William married declined collaboration between the two brothers. But Caroline was then an important role in the education of John Herschel, son of William, who continue the family saga of astronomers. After the death of his brother in 1822, Caroline returned to Hanover. During this time his work was more cataloging of observation. In 1828 he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of England, for its 2500 catalog of deep sky objects. For this time was already a celebrity in the scientific world, receiving visits from the most eminent figures such as Karl Friedrich Gauss himself. In 1835, when eighty-five years old, received the appointment of honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society.
also
Along with math and astronomer Mary Somerville, was the first woman to join the Academy. The nomination fee is due to be full member was barred to women. Three years later he was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and in 1846, on the occasion of his ninety-sixth birthday, the king of Prussia was awarded the Gold Medal of Science. Caroline Herschel lived ninety-eight, retaining until then a physical and mental health out of the ordinary. Later, in 1889, was named in his honor the asteroid Lucretia (Caroline's middle name), and in the last century, lunar crater C. Herschel, on the edge of Mare Imbrium.
Sources:
http://www.tayabeixo.org/biografias/c_herschel.htm
0 comments:
Post a Comment