Livio Gratton

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Livio Gratton (born July 30, 1910 in Trieste , † January 15, 1991 in Rome ) was an Italian astronomer .

Life

Livio Gratton was born in Trieste in 1910 as the son of Giulio Gratton and Maria Visintini. His father died when he was two years old. In 1920 his mother moved with him and his siblings to Rome, where he attended high school. From 1927 he studied physics at La Sapienza University , among others with Enrico Fermi and Franco Rasetti , as well as mathematics with Guido Castelnuovo , Tullio Levi-Civita and Beniamino Segre . In 1930 he completed his studies with the thesis Il problema cosmologico della teoria della relatività ("The cosmological problem of the theory of relativity") from Giuseppe Armellini . At this time he met Emilio Bianchi , the director of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera , who supported him throughout his life.

After his military service, he received a scholarship from the recently founded Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in 1933 , thanks to which he spent several months at the observatories in Leiden and Stockholm and worked with Jan Hendrik Oort and Bertil Lindblad . In 1934 he received a position as an assistant at the Merate Observatory , an observation station in Brera, which, under Emilio Bianchi, developed into the best-equipped observatory in Italy.

In 1939 he married Margherita Trasimeni, with whom he had eleven children. When the Second World War broke out, he had to serve as captain of the artillery first in Mantua and Bolzano and later in Rome.

In the economically difficult post-war period, Gratton oriented himself abroad. In 1947 he received a grant from the CNR to research for a year at the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin under Otto von Struve . In the USA he also had the opportunity to observe with the 2.1 m reflector at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. In 1948 he received the chair of astrophysics at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina, in 1956 he became director of the National Observatory in Córdoba .

In 1960 he returned to Italy and initially dealt with plasma physics , inspired by Edoardo Amaldi , in collaboration with the National Committee for Nuclear Energy (CNEN). At the end of 1960 he received the chair of astrophysics at the University of Bologna , and in 1962 at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. He was the founder and for more than 15 years director of the Laboratorio di Astrofisica Spaziale in Frascati , which under him developed into one of the most active centers for astrophysics in Italy.

From 1967 to 1973 Gratton was Vice President of the International Astronomical Union , from 1975 to 1979 President of the Società Astronomica Italiana .

Services

Livio Gratton was interested in many things and worked in a wide variety of fields. His thesis was the first work in Italy on relativistic cosmology . He was able to show that the expansion movement of the universe could not be derived from observations of stars in the Milky Way .

Beginning with the Nova DQ Herculis , discovered in 1934 , he dealt with the study of novae and the systematic investigation of the properties of cataclysmic variables in different stages of development through spectroscopic observations. The objects examined included DQ Herculis, CP Lacertae , CP Puppis , AI Velorum , η Carinae and in 1946 the second explosion of the recurrent Nova T Coronae Borealis . Gratton also dealt with other aspects of stellar evolution as well as with stellar statistics , later he turned to extragalactic astrophysics and cosmology.

Together with Guglielmo Righini , Leonida Rosino and Nicolò Dallaporta , he made a decisive contribution to the revival of Italian astronomy and to the establishment of astrophysics , which in Italy had been neglected compared to classical and geodetic astronomy. In 1946 he organized an informal meeting of Italian colleagues interested in astrophysics, as a result of which active astrophysical centers were established in Merate, Asiago and Arcetri . The Laboratorio di Astrofisica Spaziale, which he founded, founded a lively school of astrophysics that dealt with current topics such as stellar evolution, high-energy astrophysics , radio astronomy and cosmology both in observation and in theory.

In the 1960s, his greatest achievement was the introduction of high energy astronomy, and X-ray astronomy in particular, to Italy, made possible by rockets and satellites.

During the last years of the Second World War, Gratton was in contact with a group of scientists and philosophers who, under the influence of Ludovico Geymonat, tried to introduce neo- empirical philosophical currents in Italy . For the Catholic Gratton, especially in the last years of his life, the problem of the relationship between science and faith played an important role.

Throughout his life he campaigned for the popularization of science, which can be seen in articles in popular science magazines, radio and television appearances and in the books La fisica delle ("The Physics of the Stars"; Bologna 1935) and La scoperta del cielo ("The discovery of the sky"; Turin 1975) showed.

honors and awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lutz D. Schmadel: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . 6th edition. Springer, Heidelberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-642-29717-5 , p. 478 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-642-29718-2 .
personal data
SURNAME Gratton, Livio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Trieste
DATE OF DEATH January 15, 1991
Place of death Rome