Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel
From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
|
Date: 2008
Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel , 1784-1846, German astronomer and mathematician. He became (1810) director of the new observatory at Königsberg and professor of astronomy at the Univ. of Königsberg. Among his many achievements the most noted is his discovery of the parallax of the fixed star 61 Cygni. Announced in 1838, it was officially recognized in 1841 as the first fully authenticated measurement of the distance of a star. His observations had, by 1833, increased the number of accurately cataloged stars to 50,000. This work was continued and extended by his pupil Argelander . Through observing the variations of the proper motions of Sirius and Procyon, he concluded that they possessed dimmer companions, which was verified a century later by astronomers. Bessel's works on astronomy include Fundamenta Astronomiae (1818) and Astronomische Untersuchungen (1841-42). Bessel also introduced a class of mathematical functions, named for him, which he established as a result of work on perturbation of the planets and which are widely used in applied mathematics, physics, and engineering.
Author not available, BESSEL, FRIEDRICH WILHELM.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
For permission to reuse this article, contact Copyright Clearance Center.
Related articles from HighBeam Research:
&type=1 "The Mercury (South Africa)")
|
This Day in History.(News)
The Mercury (South Africa); 8/22/2006; 55 words;
1784 Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, the German astronomer and mathematician who calculated the path of Halley's Comet, is born. 1888 US microbiologist Selman Abraham ...
|
|
Gazette: Anniversaries
The Independent - London; 7/22/1999; 397 words;
... Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, statesman, 1621; Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, astronomer and mathematician, 1784; Gregor Johann ... 1812; George Shaw, naturalist, 1813; Christopher Wilhelm Eckersberg, painter, 1853; Wilson Barrett (William ...
|
|
|
Anniversaries
The Independent - London; 7/22/1994; 442 words;
Births: Philip I, King of Spain, 1478; Anthony Ashley Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury, statesman, 1621; Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, astronomer and mathematician, 1784; Gregor Johann Mendel, Augustinian monk and botanist, 1822; Heinrich Proch ...
|
&type=1 "The Independent (London, England)")
|
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: STARS & PLANETS.(Features)
The Independent (London, England); 1/28/2004; Couper, Heather; 694 words;
... puzzle. The German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was looking for a wobble in the ... and slower loop through space. Bessel deduced that Sirius must be pulled ... nestled close beside Sirius. It was Bessel's predicted companion. Since Sirius ...
|
|
The 2003-2004 ASME Fellows...
Mechanical Engineering; 11/1/2004; Anonymous; 20937 words;
... has received numerous awards, including the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship from the White House and a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Ph.D. (1990), Stanford University. Hasan U ... Martinez Fallon Alma U. Martinez Fallon has had a distinguished ...
|
|
The legacy of "Bevolkerunspolitik": venereal disease control and marriage counseling in post-WW II Berlin.
Canadian Journal of History; 8/1/1998; Timm, Annette F.; 21789 words;
... Gesellschaftsgeschichte der DDR, in Die Grenzen der Diktatur: Staat und Gesellschaft in der DDR, eds. Richard Bessel and Ralph Jessen (Gottingen, 1996), p. 279. (12) For a more detailed account of the importance of health care ... The German Experience, eds. Donald W. Light and Alexander Schuller (Cambridge, ...
|
|
The ASME Fellow a membership grade of distinction.(ASME International)
Mechanical Engineering-CIME; 11/1/2004; 21019 words;
... has received numerous awards, including the NSF Presidential Faculty Fellowship from the White I louse and a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Ph.D. (1990), Stanford University. Hasan U. Akay ... Martinez Fallon Alma U. Martinez Fallon has had a ...
|
|
THE CRESCENT MOON ECLIPSES STARS OF THE PLEIADES TONIGHT
The Boston Globe; 4/1/2006; Alan M. MacRobert, GLOBE CORRESPONDENT; 605 words;
... them, the same way the setting sun dims before it reaches Earth's horizon. Scrutinizing an occultation in 1843, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel found that a star's light rays did not bend at the moon's edge by any amount he could measure a sign, he calculated ...
|
|
|
A STAR AND PLANET HANG TOGETHER
The Boston Globe; 11/6/2001; Alan M. MacRobert; 717 words;
... was tiny. The German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, making hundreds of meticulous ... coming winter. Skyline telephone news A three-minute recording of the week's astronomy news can be heard by calling 617-497-41 ...
|
|
|
SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE SKY'S SECRETS
The Boston Globe; 7/10/2001; CHET RAYMO; 777 words;
... years to no avail. The stars are so far away that any apparent shift was too small to measure. Finally, in 1836, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel accomplished what no one had done before: He employed an instrument of sufficient accuracy to measure the parallax ...
|
|
Manufacturers and Suppliers.(Directory)
Fiberoptic Product News; 7/1/2001; 64999 words;
... sales@ocp-inc.com url: www.ocp-inc.com Tran Muoi, Pres./CEO; Mohamad Ghorbanali, VP-C ... greatest assortment of specialty packages. Tran Tech Electronics, Inc., 800 Blue Mound ... Employees; 3 Engineers; Established: 1987 Tran Tech Electronics is an ISO 9002 registered ...
|
|
Delusions of centrality
Natural History; 12/1/2002; Tyson, Neil deGrasse; 2988 words;
... Hipparchus. Halley trusted the accuracy of Hipparchus's maps, but he also benefited from a baseline of more than ... not be measured until 1838 by the German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. The geocentric universe was a pillar of Ptolemy's ...
|
See all results from premium newspaper and magazine articles, images, maps and more at HighBeam Research.
Related articles from newspapers, magazines and other sources:
|
|