William Herschel

British astronomer, classical composer, musician

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Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel (November 15, 1738 August 25, 1822), britain Astronomer, classical composer, musician. Stellar astronomy The founder of, is known as the "father of stellar astronomy.". Royal Astronomical Society First President. Academy of France academician. With a large scale designed by ourselves Reflecting telescope find Uranus And its two satellites Saturn The space movement of the sun sunlight In infrared radiation ； Prepared as the first Konductra and Aggregate star Table, published star clusters and nebulae table; Also studied Galaxy structure 。

Chinese name: Frederick William Herschel
Foreign name: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel
Nationality: britain
one's native heath: Germany

date of birth: November 15, 1738
Date of death: August 25, 1822
Occupation: Astronomer, classical composer, musician
Key achievements: The discovery of Uranus and its two moons

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Character's Life

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Born in 1738 Germany , moved in 1758 britain 。 Herschel spent all his spare time making telescope After a lot of tempering, he finally became a master of telescope manufacturing. In his life, he polished more than 400 reflective mirrors, and created a large metal frame with a diameter of 1.22m and a tube of 12m Reflecting telescope 。

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel is Germany Person Musical family Later in the history of astronomy, he became famous for his English name William Herschel and the title of "famous British astronomer". His ancestors mostly engaged in gardening and wine making in Germany handicraft industry His father moved his family to a place called Hanover His father joined us here Guard The band serves in the army. As a musician, he can also play Oboe 。 William Herschel was born in Hanover on November 15, 1738, when Hanover was the King of England george ii Territory of (However, it is not really British Empire Components of) 。

Herschel liked music since he was a child, and showed his talent in this field early. When he was 4 years old, he learned from his father violin Later, he learned to play the oboe and soon became an excellent oboe player. Due to difficulties in his family, he left school at the age of 16 and joined the Guard Orchestra as his father, where he played violin and oboe. In 1756, the historical“ Seven Year War ”Germany was also involved; The next year, France occupied Hanover. Herschel could not bear the pain of war, so he crossed the sea as a fugitive and sneaked to England London 。 His musical talent has made him successful in Britain. With the expansion of his popularity in Britain, his position has also been improved. He has successively served as a music teacher, performer, and became a composer of certain popularity.

Herschel had some spare time besides performing and composing music. Herschel worked hard to learn English, Italian, Latin and read extensively Newton 、 Leibniz And other scientists natural philosophy Mathematics and physics works. In 1772, Herschel returned to Hanover as a visitor. When his father died, he persuaded his mother to take his sister Caroline Herschel Take it to England to help him manage his life. Young Herschel has a wide range of hobbies. As his exploration of music theory dabbled in mathematics, he came into contact with optics 。 It is said that his father was not only proficient in music theory, but also an astronomer. Herschel had a strong interest in astronomical knowledge under his father's guidance. Under the guidance of her father, Herschel constellation Very familiar with everything. Herschel had a strong thirst for knowledge, which prompted him to transfer from playing musical instruments to studying music theory. In order to study music theory, he began to study Zhuyin by Robert Smith of Cambridge. As a result, he accidentally bought the two volume classic book Optics written by Smith from the clues provided by the book. It is a guiding optical book that can make telescopes and microscopes in theory and practice. One of the chapters is entitled "The discovery of stars by telescopes", which aroused Herschel's strong desire and ambition to observe and study celestial bodies.

A well made telescope

Since ancient times, human beings have natural awe and curiosity towards the universe, which is fully demonstrated in Herschel. In 1773, Herschel read a best-selling book, "Astronomical Interpretation of Sir Newton's Principles", written by the popular science writer James Ferguson (1710-1776). Interestingly, like many people in his era, the author of this book believed that all planets and stars "provide accommodation for their reasonable residents", Even comets may be full of creatures who can appreciate God's craftsmanship. Some people think that comets are filled with eternal hot and cold alternations to torture those evil criminals. Influenced by this, Herschel even wanted to extend this popular view of the universe to the sun. At first, he believed that the sun was as cool as a planet. It was surrounded by clouds, which protected the residents on the sun from being hurt by its outer fireball, Sunspot It is the cloud layer that people see through the gap of fireball. As the saying goes, "Seeing is better than hearing", Herschel first used Refracting telescope Observing the celestial bodies, he felt that it was not ideal. In order to find a more suitable weapon for him to explore the mysteries of the universe, he later turned to Reflecting telescope 。

In 1774, Herschel successfully installed a frame with a diameter of 15 cm, a focal length of 2.1 m, and a magnification of about 40 times Newton reflecting telescope 。 Through this telescope, he successfully saw for the first time Orion nebula And clearly identified Saturn's rings. More importantly, through continuous practice and summary, he finally mastered a set of grinding Parabolic reflector Technology. Since then, in addition to tireless observation at night, he has often used the time of the day to polish Telescope mirror 。

In 1776, he successively polished the huge ones with diameters of 15 cm, 51 cm and 122 cm Reflecting telescope Mirror. At that time, the focus of reflective telescopes was mostly Newtonian, that is Main focus On the previous optical axis, an inclined plane Secondary mirror , refract the focus to one side of the upper end of the lens barrel. Herschel, in order to reduce the loss of refracted light Primary mirror Slightly offset, so that after the starlight is reflected by the primary mirror, the focus will not converge on the optical axis, but will slant to the side of the upper end of the mirror tube. In this way, Newton's plane secondary mirror can be omitted, thus improving the efficiency of light gathering. Because this optical system It was invented by Herschel, so later generations called it Herschel Focus, and the telescope made according to this optical system is called“ Herschel telescope ”。

In 1787, Herschel decided Sight distance Whether it really runs through the Milky Way, that is, to observe more distant dim objects, he decided to build a more powerful telescope.

Discover Uranus

In the late 1870s, with the support and assistance of Caroline, Herschel began to "patrol" the sky with his self-made telescope. The main content is to observe the distribution in the north from his residence one by one celestial sphere Brighter than 4 the magnitude The bright star of. The whole process lasted for 19 years, and was called the first Star Patrol by later generations. In 1780, Herschel began the second round of star tour. After two preliminary observations, Herschel began his third comprehensive observation of the night sky in 1781.

On the evening of March 13, 1781, Herschel, as usual, used the homemade 15 cm Reflecting telescope Observe the starry sky. Every time he observed, he was absorbed in any suspicious phenomenon that might lead to new discoveries. When turning the telescope Gemini At that time, he noticed that there was a strange star in Gemini, which was bright, but he could not find it in the star map. He switched to more than 400 times and 900 times eyepiece After careful observation, it was confirmed that this was not a star. Because, no matter how large the telescope magnification is, the star always looks like a star point, and this object appears as a Turquoise The shape of a small ball surface. With the change of eyepiece, the diameter becomes larger and larger, but the image becomes blurred. For prudence's sake, Herschel paid close attention to the small star for 10 consecutive nights without making any noise. He gradually found that the star was moving slowly every day, although it was hard to detect it. He initially reported to the Royal Astronomical Society that he had discovered a comet. Comets are usually elongated Elliptical orbit And will "grow" a tail when getting closer to the sun. However, this new celestial body is not like this. Its edge has always been relatively clear Cometary tail And its orbit seems to be nearly circular.

Soon, Herschel observed data , calculate its Orbital approximation It is round and about twice as far from the sun as Saturn. Then he realized that he had found a new planet. Later, French astronomers Laplace And calculated its orbit, 19.18 away from the sun Astronomical unit (1 astronomical unit is Average distance between the sun and the earth ， Approximately equal to 149 million km) 。 After a period of observation, the astronomical community finally determined that this is a new planet in our solar system. The distance between it and the sun is twice that of Saturn, the farthest planet known at that time.

Herschel's discovery of a new planet caused a great sensation. It was later named Uranus (taken from MYTHOS Middle Saturn Father's Name) Herschel became famous as soon as possible.

In 1781, Herschel's good friend Dr. Watson recommended him to the Royal Society. The Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal in recognition of his discovery of Uranus and his acceptance as royal society member. The achievements of Herschel brothers and sisters in astronomy caused the King of England George III George III was also a Hanover man who was very fond of astronomy. In 1782, he personally received Herschel, pardoned Herschel's fault of leaving the Hanover army without permission when he was young, appointed Herschel as his private astronomer, and provided Herschel with an annual salary of 300 Guinea (Guine, old British gold coin, 1 guinea=1.05 pounds=21 shillings, originally used Guinea Is made of gold, hence the name) So that he could concentrate on astronomical research. Since then, Herschel has given up music and devoted himself to his favorite astronomy. The Herschel brothers and sisters first moved to Windsor The nearby Dachet moved to Slau in 1786. He made a series of Large telescope (Some of them were also sold to other countries). He carried out many groundbreaking research and observation, and was knighted in 1816. Herschel was 43 years old when he became a professional astronomer, and had never received any formal Higher Education His profound knowledge, mathematical and physical basis, smelting skills, etc. are all obtained through hard self-study. In his Career He has made more than 400 telescopes, the largest and most famous of which is a 40 foot (12 meter) long, 49.5 inch (1.26 meter) diameter telescope Reflecting telescope 。

Stellar astronomy

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Herschel was the first to study twinned stars—— Konductra He is very concerned about the two stars that are very close to each other. In fact, some people have discovered this pair of stars about a century and a half ago. At that time, people thought that the reason why these stars were so close was that they were almost in the same line of sight. In fact, the two stars in the "binary star" were far apart. If this is the case, then the nearest star should show Parallax displacement 。 Undoubtedly, that is sometimes the case. Herschel made a lot of observations and found that the two stars did not show parallax displacement. According to the way they move, Herschel concluded that "they don't seem to stick together, but actually they are very close.

”Until 1793, on the basis of a large number of observations, he was convinced that the two stars in pairs were rotating around each other. Herschel discovered more than 800 pairs of such "double stars" in his life - he called them this way, and the name is still in use today. Herschel observed the stars with varying luminosity very carefully. He was the first systematic report Variable star People.

From the winter of 1781 to 1782, Herschel became more interested in studying the basic composition of nebulae. After repeated careful observation, he found that his height Multiplication The telescope can identify individual stars in several nebulae. This discovery made Observer It is believed that the reason why the nebula looks like a vast expanse of white is that the observation equipment is not advanced enough. As long as they have more sophisticated observation equipment, they must be able to distinguish the stars in other nebulae. This discovery prompted Herschel to put forward the theory that all nebulae are composed of stars in 1784 and 1785. The main content is that it is no longer necessary to use the luminous wonderful fluid to explain nebulae. There are nebulae that cannot be resolved because they are too far away from us; Herschel proposed that there is a hypothesis that many stars gather into huge objects.

Herschel used to Globular cluster Compared with open star clusters, this structure can also show the magnitude of gravity. He drew a conclusion that after a period of time, Open cluster It is bound to form a dense cluster and several more compact clusters. That is to say, the star clusters with open stars are due to the early stage of star clusters Development stage And star clusters with dense stars belong to the late stage of star clusters. Therefore, Herschel proposed that celestial bodies have "time changes" (i.e., evolutionary), which later became a basic concept Scientific concepts 。 In 1785, Herschel also published his own theory of celestial evolution. He pointed out that in the vast and boundless space, stars were initially scattered, but with the action of gravity, they gradually gathered to form more dense star clusters.

Observing stars

Just after Galileo pointed his telescope at the night sky, he found many stars invisible to the naked eye, the galaxy The white Light band Originally full of stars. Later, Herschel could find a large number of more and darker stars every time he improved his telescope. What he did to the starry sky Systematic observation It is found that there are more stars in some directions and less stars in some directions. But he is not satisfied with this qualitative judgment.

In 1784, Herschel decided to count the number of stars in the sky, and wanted to know how the number of stars was distributed in different places. It is not easy to count the stars in the sky. Patience Herschel first divided the sky into hundreds of regions evenly, and then counted the stars in each region that could be seen with a telescope. As a result, Herschel found that the closer to the milky white light band in the night sky - the Milky Way, the more stars per unit area, reaching in the direction of the Milky Way Maximum , while in relation to Galactic plane In the vertical direction, the number of stars is the least.

How to explain this phenomenon? Herschel believes that stars are evenly distributed in the shape of a "lens" or a piece“ millstone ”In that space, our solar system may be located near the center. When the Earthman looks at the diameter of the "lens", he can see some nearer and therefore darker stars, while there are more distant and darker stars outside. However, a large number of very distant stars are too dim to be distinguished one by one with the naked eye, and can only see the white light belt, namely the Milky Way. Herschel is like this. He uses the method of counting the number of stars to confirm that Galaxy The hypothesis that it is a flat disk. He created the Galaxy structure And mapped the first Milky Way Section 。

"Why is only the sun still in this moving universe?" Herschel began to study the space movement of the sun in 1783 with such an idea. As far back as the beginning of the 8th century, the distinguished astronomers of the Tang Dynasty in China measured Stellar position Compared with the position measured in the Han Dynasty, it is found that there is a change. but He did not have. Explain this phenomenon. More than 1000 years later, the British astronomer Harry used the same method (referring to the positions of stars recorded in ancient times) , found Sirius ， arcturus and A desperate battle The three bright stars have obviously moved. For the convenience of research, people Space motion of stars Divided into two components, one is Apparent velocity , it is in Direction of sight ； One is the tangential velocity (that is, perpendicular to the line of sight), which is expressed as "self motion", that is, the angle at which the star moves on the background every year.

In 1786, Herschel royal society Submitted 1000 new discoveries Nebula League watch. In 1788, the Herschel family moved to Slau 。 Herschel opened a wide space in front of his new house to install a telescope with a diameter of 122 cm (48 inches) under development. In 1789, Herschel completed his second catalog of 1000 newly discovered nebulae and clusters. In the same year, his 48 inch telescope was completed. This huge telescope has extraordinary sounding power, but because its mirror is made of reflective metal, and the focal length is 12 meters, it is very inconvenient to start. In addition to great perseverance, patience and observation skills, star watchers also need to pay heavy physical labor 。 Nevertheless, this giant telescope is still one of the astronomical miracles of the 18th century.

In 1802, Herschel published the third newly discovered 1000 nebula cluster table, ending the 19 year long nebula "sky survey" observation program. In this way, after nearly 20 years of hard exploration, Herschel and Caroline discovered more than 3000 nebulae and star clusters. Before Herschel initiated this observation plan, the total number of non stellar objects known to astronomers was only 150. Although Herschel built a 122cm telescope to verify the theory that all nebulae are star clusters, before the telescope was officially used, Herschel observed Planetary nebula , confirming that there are indeed diffuse objects in the deep sky, which are clouds rather than originally recognized stars.

Herschel also expanded human vision in another way, that is, in 1800, he discovered the sun infrared radiation 。 He used thermometer measure Solar spectrum It is found that when the thermometer is placed outside the red end of the spectrum to measure temperature, the temperature rises the highest, but there is no color at all. So he concluded: sunlight It contains invisible light other than red light.

The reason why Herschel was able to Astronomical research Such fruitful achievements are inseparable from his decades of hard work. Since he moved to Slough, he has been protected from moonlight and weather every night Observation conditions I have to be accompanied by my sister Caroline Night sky observation 。 If you encounter cloudy He asked someone to watch the weather, and as soon as the clouds in the sky dispersed, he would notify him to continue to observe. Herschel loved his astronomy career so much that he devoted all his energy to the exploration of the vast sky. He didn't marry H. Pitt until he was 50 years old, that is, in 1788. In 1792, Herschel's only son John Herschel He was born and later became a famous astronomer. In 1821, Herschel and his son founded Royal Astronomical Society , he was elected as the first president. William Herschel died of illness in Slau on August 25, 1822 at the age of 84, which is exactly equal to Uranus Orbiting the sun Revolution period 。 Caroline spent her life with her brother Astronomical observation She later became a famous astronomer. She found 8 comet At the age of 98.

Character achievements

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It was discovered in 1781 solar system Uranus and Jupiter 、 Saturn And its satellites （ Titania 、 Ganymede 、 Enceladus 、 Enceladus ）。
In 1782, Herschel compiled the first Konductra He also found that most binary stars are not on the surface“ Optical binary ”, but a real "physical binary".
In 1783, Herschel discovered the sun's own motion and demonstrated that the sun is moving towards Hercules Its speed is about 10 times different from the modern measurement results.
In 1786, 1789 and 1802, Herschel published star clusters and nebula catalogues three times, recording 2500 nebulae and nebulae.
He was the first to confirm Galaxy Shape size and Number of stars People.
Created Stellar astronomy He studied and assumed that (some) nebulae are composed of stars, and put forward the famous theory of star evolution.

A total of 1083 observations were made and 117600 stars were observed.

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He is Astronomical telescope He left indelible footprints in the history of development of, and was the greatest observational astronomer at that time, laying the first cornerstone for the establishment of stellar astronomy History of Astronomy He was honored as "the father of stellar astronomy" and "the founder of double star research"“ music circles And the double stars of astronomy ".

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Space

Europe launched Herschel in 2009 Space telescope Its lens diameter reaches 3.5 meters, far exceeding Hubble Space Telescope (The lens diameter is 2.4 meters), it will become the largest space telescope ever.

Related literature

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"Look into the abyss, stars The sky is full of stars, and the horizon is boundless. "

This is a poem by the great scholar and poet Romon Nosov. The beauty of the starry sky and the mystery of the universe always stir up the human mind, and also make a boy born in a music family have endless reverie. He used to be an oboe player and lived by music, but he thought starlight was more intoxicating than music. So he braved the hard work and embarked on a path of self-study, and finally became Reflecting telescope Large generation masters, Uranian Discoverer and Stellar astronomy Father. He is the great astronomer William Herschel.

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"Where the sun shines, violet Always be open. "

This is a popular English proverb. It vividly summarizes a philosophy: there is necessity in contingency. Uranus is an astronomer telescope The first new planet detected in the solar system. Its distance from the sun is Average distance between the sun and the earth 19 times, average Apparent brightness 5.5 Star magnitude, barely visible to the naked eye. Traveling in the vast space, it was encountered by the sharp eyes of astronomers again and again, but again it became a "fish in the net" and fled. It is like a dim golden sand in the sea of stars, flickering under the dark green waves, inconspicuous. Since 1690, it has been observed and recorded at least 19 times, but each time it was mistakenly regarded as a weak star. Many of them have seen this star, such as Royal Astronomer Framstead Bradley And other masters of observation. It turned out that a small town folk music William Herschel accidentally collided. But as Pasteur As said, opportunities only favor prepared minds.

William is really lucky. He has won various honors, and he will remain immortal. But this kind of luck, this unexpected encounter, is exactly the same as his down-to-earth style of attaching importance to improving scientific tools, being diligent in systematic observation, amazing perseverance not afraid of difficulties, and being good at seeing the essence of things through phenomena Theoretical thinking etc. scientific literacy It's inseparable.

Counting stars

Here is a passage about philosophers Descartes Funny talk about stars. Once Descartes sat on the steps in front of his house, staring at the dark horizon 。 A passer-by approached him and asked, "Hey, smart man, how many stars are there in the sky?" He replied, "Fool! Nobody can embrace that boundless thing..."

What courage, amazing perseverance, extraordinary patience, superb skills and heavy mental and physical labor are required to aspire to be a "star counting fool"! In order to count the stars, they worked in obscurity for decades. The Herschel brothers and sisters never miss the observable sunny weather. Whether it is a cold winter night or a hot summer night Night falls At the beginning of the morning, I forgot to eat and sleep all night. William was hungry and thirsty, and still reluctant to leave the task of grinding the mirror of the telescope, Caroline fed him with a fork and spoon. They are so hard and tired, but they have no complaints. They are always happy about it. For the sake of science, it is bittersweet.

In order to count the stars, they forgot the years and did not know that they were getting old. They were totally dedicated to the sacred scientific cause. William married at the age of 50, married a rich widow who was willing to support him to develop a large telescope, and gave birth to John at the age of 54. When John grew up, he carried on his father's work. His main achievement was to use his father's equipment to Cape of Good Hope Counting the stars in the south. As for Caroline, she is passionate about astronomy. Many stars have never married.

stay Pythagoras In our hearts, the universe is like a huge band. Stars are distributed harmoniously in the sky, playing their own strings Musical sound join together to form sth. Sound of nature , reverberating in the universe. "Hear that?" the sage asked, "Put your heart into it, let your clean soul fly into space, and you will hear it." Obviously, the Herschels heard the melody of the universe.^{[1 ]}

Main achievements

1. Made many large telescopes. At least 76 telescopes have been ground and sold. Self use Reflecting telescope Maximum diameter 1.2m, at that time The most in the world ；

2. Uranus was discovered. In 1781, William Herschel accidentally discovered Uranus when he made a survey with his self-made telescope, and later discovered two satellites of Uranus and Saturn, for which he won the Royal Society Copley Medal , and was elected as a member;

3. Yes Galaxy structure Research, using Statistical method Confirmed for the first time Galaxy The hypothesis that it is a flat disk;

4. Engaged in the research of star clusters, nebulae and binaries, and collected 20 years of observation results and compiled them into three nebulae and star clusters lists, recording a total of 2500 nebulae and star clusters, of which only more than 100 are known by predecessors, and binary stars Triad and Aggregate star 848;

5. Discovered the space movement of the sun. He discovered and measured the To a point be located Hercules Near λ, which is very close to the modern recognized value. William Herschel is praised by later generations for his outstanding achievements in astronomy, especially in the field of star observation“ Stellar astronomy Father ".

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