Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers (; ; 11 October 1758 – 2 March 1840) was a German

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

Life and career

Olbers was born in

Arbergen Hemelingen (Plattdeutsch ') is a German city and district of Bremen belonging to the Bremen district East. Geography and districts Hemelingen is located about 6 km east of the center of Bremen on the right bank of the Weser. The neighbor ...

, Germany, today part of

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, and studied to be a

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

(1777–80). While he was at Göttingen, he studied mathematics with

Abraham Gotthelf Kästner Abraham Gotthelf Kästner (27 September 1719 – 20 June 1800) was a German mathematician and epigrammatist. He was known in his professional life for writing textbooks and compiling encyclopedias rather than for original research. Georg Chr ...

. In 1779, while attending to a sick fellow student, he devised a method of calculating cometary orbits which made an epoch in the treatment of the subject. It was the first satisfactory method of calculating cometary orbits. After his graduation in 1780, he began practicing

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

in Bremen. At night he dedicated his time to

astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ...

observation, making the upper story of his home into an

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

. In 1800, Olbers was one of 24 astronomers invited to participate in the group known as the "

celestial police The celestial police (german: Himmelspolizey), officially the United Astronomical Society (german: Vereinigte Astronomische Gesellschaft, VAG), were an informal group of astronomers working in the early 19th century with the express purpose of f ...

", dedicated to finding new planets in the solar system. On 28 March 1802, Olbers discovered and named the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

Pallas Pallas may refer to: Astronomy * 2 Pallas asteroid ** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas * Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon Mythology * Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena * Pa ...

. Five years later, on 29 March 1807, he discovered the asteroid Vesta, which he allowed

Carl Friedrich Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...

to name. As the word "asteroid" was not yet coined, the literature of the time referred to these

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

s as

planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...

in their own right. He proposed that the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

, where these objects lay, was the remnants of a planet that had been destroyed. The current view of most scientists is that tidal effects from the planet Jupiter disrupted the planet-formation process in the asteroid belt. On 6 March 1815, Olbers discovered a periodic

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

, now named after him (formally designated

13P/Olbers 13P/Olbers is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 69 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years <

Olbers' paradox Olbers's paradox, also known as the dark night sky paradox, is an argument in astrophysics and physical cosmology that says that the darkness of the night sky conflicts with the assumption of an infinite and eternal static universe. In the hyp ...

, described by him in 1823 (and then reformulated in 1826), states that the darkness of the night sky conflicts with the supposition of an infinite and eternal

static universe In cosmology, a static universe (also referred to as stationary, infinite, static infinite or static eternal) is a cosmological model in which the universe is both spatially and temporally infinite, and space is neither expanding nor contract ...

. In July 1804, the young

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the sun to another star by the method ...

contacted Olbers to get his opinion of Bessel's treatise on orbit calculation of

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

. Olbers noticed the outstanding quality of this work and arranged for its publication. In 1804, Olbers was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

of London, in 1809 corresponding member living abroad of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands in 1822, a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, and in 1827, a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

. Olbers was deputed by his fellow citizens to assist at the

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

Napoleon II of France , house = Bonaparte , father = Napoleon I, Emperor of the French , mother = Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma , birth_date = , birth_place = Tuileries Palace, Paris, French Empire ...

on 9 June 1811. He was a member of the ''corps legislatif'' in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

1812–13. He died in Bremen aged 81. He was twice married, and one son survived him.

, the argument that the dark sky at night shows that stars cannot be evenly distributed through infinite space, is named for him, though others had also advanced it.

Honors

The following celestial features are named for Olbers: * The periodic comet

13P/Olbers 13P/Olbers is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 69 years. It fits the classical definition of a Halley-type comet with (20 years <

1002 Olbersia 1002 Olbersia (Minor planet provisional designation, ''prov. designation'': ''or'' ) is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 15 August 1923, by Russian astronomer Vladimir Albitsky at the Sime ...

* The lunar crater '' Olbers'' * The albedo feature '' Olbers'' on Vesta's surface There is a statue of Olbers of 1850 in the former rampart area in Bremen.

Life and career

Honors

Works

Notes

References

Further reading