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Edward Emerson Barnard

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Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer.

He was born in Nashville, Tennessee to Reuben Barnard and Elizabeth Jane Barnard (née Haywood), and had one brother. His father died before his birth, 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 of photography, 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 refractor telescope, and in 1881 he discovered his first comet. (But he 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 English-born woman Rhoda Calvert in 1881. In the 1880s a wealthy patron awarded US$200 per discovery of a new comet. Edward discovered a total of eight, and used the money to build a house for himself and his bride.

With his name being brought to the attention of amateur astronomers in Nashville, they collectively raised enough money to give Edward a fellowship to Vanderbilt University. He graduated from the college at the age of 30. He then joined the staff of the Lick Observatory.

In 1892 he made observations of a nova and was the first to notice the gaseous emissions, thus deducing that it was a stellar explosion. The same year he also discovered Amalthea, the fifth moon of Jupiter. He was the first to discover a new moon of Jupiter since Galileo Galilei in 1609. This was the last satellite discovered by visual observation (rather than by examining photographic plates or other recorded images).

In 1895 he joined the University of Chicago as professor of astronomy. There he was able to use the 40-inch telescope at Yerkes Observatory. Much of his work during this period was taking photographs of the Milky Way. Together with Max 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.

The faint Barnard's Star is named for Edward Barnard after he discovered in 1916 that it had a very large proper motion, relative to other stars. This is the second nearest star system to the Sun, second only to the Alpha Centauri system.

He was also a pioneering astrophotographer. He cataloged a series of dark nebula giving them numerical designation akin to the Messier catalog. They begin with Barnard 1 and end with Barnard 366. He published his initial list with the 1919 paper in the Astrophysical Journal, "On the Dark Markings of the Sky with a Catalogue of 182 such Objects".

He died on February 6, 1923 in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, and was buried in Nashville. After his death, his exceptional collection of photographs was published as Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way.

Contents

Comet discoveries

Between 1881 and 1892, he discovered fourteen different comets:

Honors

Awards Named after him

External links

Obituaries

 

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