Edward Emerson Barnard | |
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| Born | (1857-12-16)December 16, 1857 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 1923(1923-02-06) (aged 65) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, U.S. |
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| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Lick Observatory,University of Chicago |
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Edward Emerson Barnard/ˈbɑːrnərd/ (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an Americanastronomer. He was commonly known asE. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the high proper motion ofBarnard's Star in 1916, which is named in his honor.
Barnard was born inNashville, Tennessee, on December 16, 1857, to Reuben Barnard and Elizabeth Jane Barnard (née Haywood), and had one brother. His father died three months before his birth,[1] so he grew up in an impoverished family and did not receive much in the way of formal education. His first interest was in the field ofphotography, and he became a photographer's assistant at the age of nine.
He later developed an interest in astronomy. In 1876 he purchased a 5-inch (130-millimeter)refractor telescope, and in 1881 he discovered his firstcomet, but failed to announce his discovery. He found his second comet later the same year and a third in 1882.
While he was still working at a photography studio he was married to the British-born Rhoda Calvert in 1881. In the 1880s,Hulbert Harrington Warner offered $200 (equivalent to $6,000 in 2024)[2] per discovery of a new comet. Barnard discovered a total of five,[3] and used the money to build a house for himself and his wife.
With his name being brought to the attention of amateur astronomers in Nashville, they collectively raised enough money to give Barnard afellowship toVanderbilt University. He never graduated from the school, but did receive the onlyhonorary degree Vanderbilt has ever awarded.[4] He joined the staff of theLick Observatory in California in 1887, though he later clashed with the director,Edward S. Holden, over access to observing time on the larger instruments and other issues of research and management.[5]
Barnard observed thegegenschein in 1882, not aware of earlier papers byTheodor Brorsen and T. W. Backhouse.[6] In 1889, he observed the moonIapetus pass behindSaturn's rings. As he watched Iapetus pass through the space between Saturn's innermost rings and the planet itself, he saw a shadow pass over the moon. Although he did not realize it at the time, he had discovered proof of the "spokes" of Saturn, dark shadows running perpendicular to the circular paths of the rings. These spokes were doubted at first, but confirmed by the spacecraftVoyager 1.
In 1892, he made observations of anova and was the first to notice the gaseous emissions, thus correctly deducing that it was a stellar explosion. The same year he also discoveredAmalthea, the fifthmoon of Jupiter. He was the first to discover a new moon of Jupiter sinceGalileo Galilei in 1609. This was the last satellite discovered by direct visual observation (rather than by examining photographic plates or other recorded images).
In 1895, he joined theUniversity of Chicago asprofessor of astronomy. There he was able to use the 40-inch (1-meter) telescope atYerkes Observatory. Much of his work during this period was takingphotographs of theMilky Way. Together withMax Wolf, he discovered that certain dark regions of the galaxy were actually clouds of gas and dust that obscured the more distant stars in the background. From 1905, his nieceMary R. Calvert worked as his assistant andcomputer.
The faintBarnard's Star is named for Edward Barnard after he discovered in 1916 that it had a largeproper motion relative to other stars. This is thesecond nearest star system to the Sun, second only to theAlpha Centauri system.
He was also a pioneeringastrophotographer. HisBarnard Catalogue lists a series ofdark nebulae, known as Barnard objects, giving them numerical designations akin to theMessier catalog. They begin withBarnard 1 and end with Barnard 370. He published his initial list in a 1919 paper published in theAstrophysical Journal, titled "On the Dark Markings of the Sky with a Catalogue of 182 such Objects".
He died on February 6, 1923, inWilliams Bay, Wisconsin, and was buried in Nashville. After his death, many examples from his exceptional collection of astronomical photographs were published in 1927 asA Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, this work having been finished by Mary R. Calvert andEdwin B. Frost, then director ofYerkes Observatory.
Between 1881 and 1892, he discovered 15 comets, three of which were periodic, and co-discovered two others:
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