John Goodricke
John Goodricke (born September 17, 1764 in Groningen , † April 20, 1786 in York ) was an English astronomer .
Goodricke was the eldest son of the Dutch merchant's daughter Lerina B. Sessler and the English country nobleman Henry Goodricke. As a result of a childhood illness, Goodricke became deaf , which at the time was regarded as a fateful idiocy. At the age of eight, his educated parents sent him to Edinburgh to the private school for deaf children run by Thomas Braidwood (1715-1806). At the age of 13, he was well versed in arithmetic and writing and able to lip-read words and speak himself. His parents enrolled him at Warrington Academy (Northern England).
Returning home, he became enthusiastic about stargazing through the influence of neighbor Nathaniel Pigott. At the age of 18, he found out that the star Algol changed its brightness in a fixed rhythm and concluded that it was a planet orbiting Algol. Spectroscopic studies a century later showed, however, that Algol is a binary star system with a darker and a brighter star. A year later, Goodricke was awarded the Royal Society's Godfrey Copley Medal for his discovery .
Goodricke also determined the period of the brightness fluctuation of the variable star Delta Cephei to be 5 days, 8 hours and 45 minutes. His calculation later proved to be accurate to within 2 minutes. As a further variability, he calculated the light changes with Sheliak in the lyre (β Lyrae) astonishingly precisely. His instruments were an opera glass and a perspective with max. 12x magnification.
While observing the Delta Cephei (a pulsating star), Goodricke contracted pneumonia, from which he died in 1786, not even 22 years old.
The asteroid (3116) Goodricke bears his name. The Goodricke College at the University of York is named after him. There is a modern sculpture named “Algol” on its grounds.
literature
- Kosmos-Heavenly Year 1997 . United Soft Media-Verl., 1997, pp. 151-153 (1 CD-ROM).
- Simon Singh : Big Bang. The origin of the cosmos and the invention of modern science ("Big Bang"). New edition Dtv, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-34413-5 , pp. 205-208, 216
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Goodricke, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th September 1764 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Groningen , the Netherlands |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 20, 1786 |
| Place of death | York |