Hubert Anson Newton

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Hubert Anson Newton (ca.1879)

Hubert Anson Newton (born March 19, 1830 in Sherburne , New York , † August 12, 1896 in New Haven , Connecticut ) was an American astronomer and mathematician . He was considered a leading expert on comets and meteorites . In particular, he recognized that meteor showers like the regularly returning Leonids and Perseids are caused by the fact that the earth crosses cometary orbits.

life and work

Newton, the son of a building contractor, studied at Yale University with his degree in 1850 and was there from 1853 a tutor in mathematics, with him because of the disease (tuberculosis) of mathematics professor Anthony D. Stanley (he was professor of mathematics at Yale since 1836 as Successor to Denison Olmsted , who changed to the chair of astronomy and died in 1853) all teaching in mathematics fell to. In 1855, when he was only 25 years old, he became professor of mathematics at Yale (without ever having a doctorate). Associated with this was a one-year stay in Europe at the Sorbonne with Michel Chasles . As a result, he dealt for some time like Chasles with geometry, which he published in the Mathematical Monthly, which existed from 1858 to 1861. In Europe he also visited England (he met the astronomer John Couch Adams in Cambridge) and Italy.

Newton dealt mainly with astronomy, especially the orbits of meteors in the atmosphere and their observation and was considered an international authority. Interest in it had awakened in America after the spectacular (not visible in Europe) meteor showers of 1833 and Edward C. Herrick had collected observation material at Yale. Newton was on the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences committee established in 1861 to communicate meteorite observations. According to Steve Batterson, it was uncommon for an American math professor of the period to focus primarily on research instead of teaching and publishing textbooks. His astronomy teacher, Olmsted, had theorized that meteor showers were related to nebula-like objects on elliptical orbits that cross the earth's orbit. Newton, who only dealt with the topic after the death of Olmsted in 1859, was able to confirm this theory and more precisely demonstrate the connection with comet orbits.

In particular, Newton was able to explain the displacement of the Leonids in the course of observation history (October 13, 902 to November 13, 1833) and reconstruct the original orbit in the solar system. He concluded that they resembled the orbits of comets (almost parabolic orbit). He predicted the return of the Leonid showers in 1866, which made an impression especially on astronomers in Europe (such as Giovanni Schiaparelli ), where they were very active that year. Using perturbation calculations, John Couch Adams was able to narrow down the five values ​​given by Newton for the orbit period to one (33.25 years). Newton was able to identify several comets as candidates for causing the Leonids (including Chinese observations from 1366, along with comet 55P / Tempel-Tuttle , which was observed in 1866).

The connection between comets and meteor showers was confirmed by Newton on the Perseids that appeared in August : He was able to show a connection with the orbit of comet 109P / Swift-Tuttle (comet of 1862). The theory was confirmed by the discovery of meteor showers in the context of Comet Biela , which broke in two before the eyes of astronomers in 1845/46.

He also tried to draw conclusions about the origin of the comets from the statistics of orbital parameters, whereby the theory of Immanuel Kant (originated in the solar system) and Pierre Simon de Laplace (originated outside the solar system) competed. Newton tended to Laplace's theory, but was also able to demonstrate the great influence of Jupiter's perturbations.

In 1885 he became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and he was a founding member of the National Academy of Sciences , whose J. Lawrence Smith Medal he received in 1888, and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society and foreign member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Royal Society (1892). In 1895 he became vice president of the American Mathematical Society . He was also an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Eliakim Hastings Moore (PhD at Yale 1885), also known as the father of American mathematics, was one of his PhD students . Batterson also sees Arthur W. Wright (later a physics professor at Yale), who received his PhD in 1861 at Yale on a subject in the celestial mechanics of meteorites (with Newton most likely supervising the work), as the first Ph. D. in mathematics in the USA, because celestial mechanics was actually still part of mathematics at that time. The famous physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs was also one of Newton's students, who used him for his comet calculations (but he probably received his doctorate in engineering).

Fonts

  • On shooting stars, Memoirs National Academy of Sciences (USA) 1866
  • On the origin of comets, American Journal of Science 1878

literature

  • Steven Batterson: The Father of the Father of American Mathematics, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Vol. 55, No. 3, 2008

Web links

Commons : Hubert Anson Newton  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Hubert Anson Newton in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used
  2. ↑ Doctorate degrees (Ph. D.) were first awarded in the USA at Yale in 1861
personal data
SURNAME Newton, Hubert Anson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer and mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH March 19, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Sherburne , New York
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1896
Place of death New Haven , Connecticut