Early Life
Heinrich
Wilhelm Matthias Olbers was born on October 11, 1758 in Arbergen Germany. He
studied to be a physician in Göttingen, Germany where he attended college.
Afterwards he practiced medicine in his hometown. Being an avid astronomer, he
transformed the second story of his house into an observatory where he spent
most of his time at night. He died on March 02, 1840, at the age of eighty-one.
Contribution to Astronomy.
Heinrich
Wilhelm Matthias Olbers has three main contribution to science and astronomy.
His first major contribution involves his leading role in the search for a
planet between Mars and Jupiter. In his search, he discovered Pallas, the
second asteroid ever discovered and re-identified Ceres. Bode’s law states that
there should be a medium size planetary body. Olbers was the first to propose
that these asteroids were stray parts to this undiscovered planet. Later Olbers
was also the first to propose the idea of an asteroid belt that would contain
the mass of this lost planet that never condensed. His second major
contribution involved the tails of comets. In 1811 Olbers proposed that the
tails of comets always pointed away from the sun due to radiation pressure from
the sun. This was almost two centuries before we could experimentally show its
effect in a laboratory. Olbers also discovered a new comet now named Olbers
Comet. Later, he also predicted the path of a comet and too much dismay showed
that the Earth would pass through the comet’s tail. Olber’s last major
contribution involves why most of space is dark at night. Olbers proposed what
is now known as the Olbers Paradox. It states that if space is both endless and
uniformly populated, then every line of sight must eventually terminate at the
surface of a star. This is contrary to observation where we only see a few
bright spots compared to the vast darkness of space. This paradox implies that
every we look we will see a star and the entire night sky should be bright,
with no dark spaces between the stars.
Legacy.
Heinrich
Wilhelm Matthias Olber’s legacy remains largely with his work with asteroids a
comets. The paradox he suggested still remains current but he is better known
for his dedication to comets. His discovery, Pallas, still retains the same
name. In memoration of his accomplishments, there is a comet and a lunar crater
named after him. The mathematical calculation were the precursors to modern day
asteroid tracking and many of the formulas remain the same.
