Benjamin Apthorp Gould

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Benjamin Apthord Gould

Benjamin Apthorp Gould (born September 27, 1824 in Boston , † November 26, 1896 in Cambridge , Massachusetts ) was an American astronomer who also worked in Argentina for a long time .

After graduating from Harvard University in 1844, he received his doctorate from Göttingen University in 1848 . In 1847 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1851 to the American Philosophical Society , in 1863 he was a founding member of the National Academy of Sciences .

Gould founded the renowned Astronomical Journal in 1849 .

In 1866 he carried out the first determination of length between America and Europe using a transatlantic cable .

He served as director of the Dudley Observatory in Albany, New York from 1856 to 1859. From 1852 to 1867 he was director of the Longitude Department of the US Coast Survey.

In 1868 he became the first director of the Argentine National Observatory (today Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba ). In Argentina he extensively mapped the southern sky using newly developed photometric methods. The result were several star catalogs , including his Uranometria Argentina in 1879 . He stayed in Argentina until 1885, when he returned to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

He received the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1883 and the James Craig Watson Medal in 1887 . Named after him are the Gould lunar crater , the asteroid (7808) Bagould and the Gouldian belt , a large-scale structure in the solar neighborhood that was identified by Gould and is still the subject of intensive research today. He was also accepted as a foreign member of the Prussian order Pour le Mérite for science and the arts in 1892 . In 1867 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1871 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris and in 1875 of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . Since 1883 he was a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In 1891 he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society .

Benjamin Apthorp Gould died on November 26, 1896 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: Benjamin A. Gould. American Philosophical Society, accessed August 25, 2018 .
  2. ↑ The Orden pour le merite for science and the arts, The members of the order, Volume II (1882–1952), page 86, Gebr. Mann-Verlag, Berlin, 1978
  3. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 95.
  4. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 22, 2015 .
  5. ^ Members of the previous academies. Benjamin Apthorp Gould. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed March 30, 2015 .
  6. ^ Entry on Gould, Benjamin Apthorp (1824-1896) in the archives of the Royal Society , London
personal data
SURNAME Gould, Benjamin Apthorp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1824
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1896
Place of death Cambridge , Massachusetts