Camille Flammarion

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Camille Flammarion at the age of sixteen

Nicolas Camille Flammarion (born February 26, 1842 in Montigny-le-Roi , Haute-Marne department , † June 3, 1925 in Juvisy-sur-Orge , Essonne department ) was a French astronomer and author of popular scientific writings and the first president of his Société astronomique de France (SAF) founded in 1887 .

Live and act

Camille Flammarion photographed by Eugène Pirou (1841–1909)

His autobiography, published in 1912, gives a detailed account of his youth. Flammarion was interested in astronomy from a young age . At the age of 16 he wrote a 500-page manuscript entitled Cosmologie Universelle and became an assistant to the astronomer Urbain Leverrier at the Paris Observatory . In 1861, at the age of 19, he published The Majority of Inhabited Worlds . In it he dealt with the possibility of life on other celestial bodies and took the view that the earth does not have a special position, but that life can also exist on the other planets of the solar system . In this context he also dealt with the question of the meaning of the universe . Flammarion comes to the following conclusion: If the universe was created by chance - that is, it is pointless - then it is large enough to produce life elsewhere. If the universe and life on earth have a meaning, it would be absurd to believe that this wondrous and diverse universe was created without further living beings to perceive and explore it. The book has been translated into several languages.

Un missionnaire du moyen âge raconte qu'il avait trouvé le point… - subtitled illustration (called Flammarion's wood engraving ) in the chapter 'La forme du ciel' in L'Atmosphère.… (Paris 1888)

Flammarion soon lost his position at the observatory and worked from 1862 to 1867 for the Institut de Longitudes ; In 1867 he made nine air voyages in a balloon for scientific observations; then he returned to the observatory, where he took part in a project for the systematic observation of binary stars . The result of the project was a catalog of 10,000 double stars published in 1878. In addition, Flammarion observed the moon and Mars . In 1873 he put forward the thesis that the red color of Mars was due to vegetation .

In 1877 he came across an edition of the Messier catalog in an antiquarian bookshop , which contained handwritten notes and notes by Charles Messier . He then revised the catalog and found that the measurement object M102 coincided with the galaxy NGC 5866. In 1921 he added M104 , known as Sombrero Galaxy , to the Messier catalog.

An image became known as Flammarion's wood engraving , the Flammarion in his book L'Atmosphère , published in 1888 . Météorologie populaire published on page 163. The picture is subtitled: "A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he found the point where heaven and earth touch ..." and shows an observer kneeling on the earth disk who looks behind the starry sky and sees what is behind it. The illustration became very popular in the 20th century.

Flammarion published about 50 popular science works, including L'astronomie Populaire in 1879 , of which 100,000 copies were sold, and La Planète Mars (Volume 1 1892 , Volume 2 1909) , in which he supported the existence of the Martian canals built by a highly developed culture and encouraged amateur astronomers to make their own observations. He also wrote fantastic stories, including Uranie (1889; Ger. Urania) and Stella (1897). In La Fin du Monde (1894) to scientific and fantastic elements in describing the future of humanity in the 25th century and 10 million years mix. The novel inspired u. a. the Parisian surrealists, such as Max Ernst or Wolfgang Paalen (see Pays interdit (Forbidden Land), 1936–1937).

Flammarion also dealt with spiritualism and parapsychology and took the view that the soul possesses an independent existence from the body and possesses abilities that are hitherto unknown to science. In this way the soul can develop its effect even over greater distances. He was a co-founder and member of the French Theosophical Society . In 1923 he was president of the Society for Psychical Research .

In 1887 Flammarion founded the Société Astronomique de France. He was very well read and in the course of his life he assembled an extensive astronomical library which in 1910 comprised 10,000 volumes.

In 1922 he was accepted into the Legion of Honor because of his life's work .

In his honor the 74 km large lunar crater Flammarion , the Mars crater Flammarion and the asteroid (1021) Flammario were named.

Camille Flammarion was the brother of Ernest Flammarion (1846-1936), the founder of the Paris publishing house Flammarion , and the grandfather of the radio pioneer Léon Deloy .

Works

  • Autobiography: Mémoires biographiques et philosophiques d'un astronome , Paris 1912. Gallica

Flammarion's books have been partially translated into German and published, including:

  • The majority of inhabited worlds . Publishing bookstore JJWeber, Leipzig 1865
  • Unknown natural forces . J. Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1906 (1st edition), translated by Gustav Meyrink
  • Heavenly news for the people . Verlag von Zahn, Neuchâtel 1908
  • Riddle of soul life . J. Hoffmann, Stuttgart 1909 (1st edition), translated by Gustav Meyrink
  • God in nature . Hendel, Halle 1920
  • Walks in the starry world . G. Westermann, Braunschweig 1922
  • Comet and Earth - An Astronomical Tale . Philipp Reclam, Leipzig 1910
  • The Majority of Inhabited Worlds, a study in which the habitability conditions of celestial bodies are developed and discussed from the point of view of astronomy and physiology . Dieter von Reeken, Lüneburg 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0882-0 .
  • Lumens . Reprint of the German first edition published in 1900, Dieter von Reeken, Lüneburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-940679-04-8 .

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Camille Flammarion  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Camille Flammarion  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Who is who in amateur wireless. In: QST, December 1922, p. 61
personal data
SURNAME Flammarion, Camille
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Flammarion, Nicolas Camille (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French astronomer and popular science writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Montigny-le-Roi ( Haute-Marne department , France )
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1925
Place of death Juvisy-sur-Orge ( Essonne Department )