Owen Gingerich | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 24, 1930 |
| Died | May 28, 2023 (aged 93) |
| Education | Harvard University |
| Occupation | Astronomer |
| Organization | American Philosophical Society |
| Spouse | Miriam (1963–) |
| Children | 3 |
Owen Jay Gingerich (/ˈɡɪŋɡərɪtʃ/; March 24, 1930 – May 28, 2023) was an American astronomer who had been professor emeritus ofastronomy and of thehistory of science atHarvard University and a seniorastronomer emeritus at theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In addition to his research and teaching, he had written many books on thehistory of astronomy.
Gingerich was also a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, theAmerican Philosophical Society, and theInternational Academy of the History of Science. A committed Christian, he had been active in theAmerican Scientific Affiliation, a society ofevangelical scientists.[1] He served on the board of trustees of theTempleton Foundation.[2]
Gingerich was born March 24, 1930, to Melvin and Verna (Roth) Gingerich, aMennonite family inWashington, Iowa, but was raised on the prairies ofKansas where he first became interested in astronomy. His father taught history atBethel College inNorth Newton, Kansas, from 1941 to 1947, when he took a job atGoshen College in Indiana. He traveled to Poland in 1946 as aseagoing cowboy. When his family relocated, Owen Gingerich began attending Goshen College although having only completed his junior year ofhigh school.[3] He continued his studies atHarvard University, completing his thesis in astronomy, "The Study of Non-Gray Stellar Atmospheres", underCecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.[4] In 2004 on May 22, Newton High School awarded him an honoraryhigh school diploma, and he gave a graduation commencement speech to the Newton High School Class of 2004.[3]
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Gingerich eventually came to teach astronomy atHarvard where his lectures became known for attention-getting schemes. Among them was propelling himself out of the classroom using a fire extinguisher to demonstrateNewton's third law of motion, and dressing up like a sixteenth-centuryLatin scholar.[5] He is associated with theSmithsonian through theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory[6] and also served as chairman of theInternational Astronomical Union's Planet Definition Committee, which was charged in 2005 with updating the astronomicaldefinition of planet to reflect then recent discoveries such asEris.
The seven-member committeedrafted a definition which preservedPluto's status by only requiring a planet to be (1) large enough to assumehydrostatic equilibrium (a nearly round shape) and (2) orbiting astar without itself being a star. This proposal was criticized by many for weakening the meaning of the term. The eventual definition adopted by the IAU added an additional requirement, that a body must havecleared its neighborhood of all other sizable objects, language that Gingerich was "not at all pleased" with.[7]
After some early astronomical research on stellar atmospheres, he reoriented his studies toward the history ofastronomy. In the 1950s, he researchedCharles Messier's life and theMessier Catalog. Gingerich found notes by Messier on two additional Objects, discovered by Pierre Méchain, which he added to the Messier Catalog:M108 (NGC 3556) andM109 (NGC 3992). He investigated the missing Messier Objects, concluding thatM91 was probably a comet and thatM102 was probably a duplication ofM101. The first conclusion was later dismissed as W. C. Williams brought up evidence that M91 is probably NGC 4548, but the second is still open (M102 may be NGC 5866).[8]
Gingerich was a recognized authority on bothJohannes Kepler andNicolaus Copernicus, especially in regard to Copernicus'sDe revolutionibus orbium coelestium. He was also an expert on Galileo's astronomical observations, and took a leading role in establishing that the watercolor lunar images in a celebrated copy of Galileo'sSidereus Nuncius were modern forgeries and not made by Galileo.[9]
In 1959, in chapter II ofThe Sleepwalkers, titled "The System of Copernicus",Arthur Koestler wrote that: "The book that nobody read – theRevolutions of the Heavenly Spheres – was and is an all-time worst-seller." After reading in theRoyal Observatory in Edinburgh a thoroughly annotated copy previously owned byErasmus Reinhold,[10] a prominent sixteenth-century German astronomer who worked inUniversity of Wittenberg shortly after Copernicus' death, Gingerich was inspired to check Koestler's claim and to research who had owned and studied the book's first two editions, published in 1543 and 1566 inNuremberg andBasel respectively. He discovered, from marginal annotations, that the book was widely read after all. Gingerich also documented where and how the book was censored.
Due largely to Gingerich's work,De revolutionibus has been researched and catalogued better than any other first-edition historical text except for the originalGutenberg Bible.[5] His bookAn Annotated Census of Copernicus' De Revolutionibus (Nuremberg, 1543 and Basel, 1566) was published in 2002. His three-decade-long personal survey of Copernicus' bookDe revolutionibus was recounted inThe Book Nobody Read, published in 2004 by Walker & Co. These Copernican researches earned him thePolish government'sOrder of Merit in 1981.[11] His latter books,God's Universe (Harvard, 2006) andGod's Planet (Harvard, 2014), dealt with the intersection of science and religion.
Gingerich was aChristian as well as a historian of science and a cosmologist and had been asked several times to comment on matters concerning the interplay between science and faith. In one of these,Intelligent design, he asserted "immense incomprehension from both the friends and foes." On the one hand, he said that it is unfortunate that there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction among its critics that I.D. is simplyYoung Earth creationism in disguise. On the other hand, he said that, while I.D. supporters make a good case for a coherent understanding of the nature of the cosmos,
they fall short in providing any mechanisms for the efficient causes that primarily engage scientists in our age. I.D. does not explain the temporal or geographical distribution of species, or the intricate relationships of the DNA coding. I.D. is interesting as a philosophical idea, but it does not replace the scientific explanations that evolution offers.[12]
Gingerich believed "there is a God as a designer, who happens to be using the evolutionary process to achieve larger goals – which are, as far as we human beings can see, [the development of] self-consciousness and conscience." He has written that "I ... believe in intelligent design, lowercase 'i' and 'd'. But I have trouble with Intelligent Design – uppercase 'I' and 'D' – a movement widely seen as anti-evolutionist." He indicated thatteleological arguments, such as the apparentfine tuning of the universe, can count as evidence, but not proof, for theexistence of God. He said that "a common-sense and satisfying interpretation of our world suggests the designing hand of a superintelligence."[13]
Accepting thecommon descent of species, Gingerich was atheistic evolutionist. Therefore, he did not acceptmetaphysical naturalism, writing that,
Most mutations are disasters, but perhaps some inspired few are not. Can mutations be inspired? Here is the ideological watershed, the division between atheistic evolution and theistic evolution, and frankly it lies beyond science to prove the matter one way or the other. Science will not collapse if some practitioners are convinced that occasionally there has been creative input in the long chain of being.[14]
Gingerich's beliefs had sometimes resulted in criticism fromyoung earth creationists, who dissent from the view that the universe isbillions of years old. Gingerich had responded, in part, by saying that "the great tapestry of science is woven together with the question 'how?'" while the biblical account and faith "addresses entirely different questions: not the how, but the motivations of the 'Who'."[1]
At Harvard, Gingerich taught "The Astronomical Perspective", a core science course for non-scientists, which at the time of his retirement in 2000 was the longest-running course under the same management (with David Latham) at the university.[15] He was known for his creativity in teaching, using, for example, medieval costumes and fire extinguishers. A notable example was when in one semester, when the number of students signing up for the course lagged, Gingerich hired a plane to fly over Harvard Yard with a banner: "Sci A-17. M, W, F. Try it!".[5] In 1984, he won the Harvard-RadcliffePhi Beta Kappa prize for excellence in teaching.[16]
Gingerich has written more than 20 books and published nearly 600 technical or educational articles and reviews. Two anthologies of his essays have been released,The Great Copernicus Chase and Other Adventures in Astronomical History from Cambridge University Press andThe Eye of Heaven: Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler in the American Institute of Physics "Masters of Modern Physics" series.[11]
Gingerich was a councilor of theAmerican Astronomical Society, and helped organize its Historical Astronomy Division. In 2000, he won their Doggett Prize for his contributions to the history of astronomy.[17] He was awarded thePrix Jules Janssen of theSociété astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) in 2006.
Gingerich won theTrotter Prize in 2009, an endowed lecture atTexas A&M.
Asteroid2658 Gingerich, discovered on February 13, 1980, at theHarvard College Observatory, is named in his honor.
Gingerich and his wife, Miriam, were married for over 60 years.[5] They had three sons, Jonathan, Mark, and Peter, as well as three grandchildren. They enjoyed traveling and photography.[17]
Gingerich died on May 28, 2023, at the age of 93.[18]
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