Hervé Auguste Étienne Albans Faye ( – ) was a French

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 ...

, born at Saint-Benoît-du-Sault (

Indre Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...

) and educated at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

, which he left in 1834, before completing his course, to accept a position in the

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (french: Observatoire de Paris ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centers in the world. Its histor ...

to which he had been appointed on the recommendation of M. Arago. It was during his time at the École Polytechnique that he developed his interest in astronomy. He studied

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 ...

s, and discovered the periodic comet 4P/Faye on 22 November 1843. His discovery of "Faye's Comet" attracted worldwide attention, and won him the 1844

Lalande Prize The Lalande Prize (French: ''Prix Lalande'' also known as Lalande Medal) was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 until 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences. The prize was endowed by astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 180 ...

and a membership in the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

. In 1848 he became an instructor in

geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...

at the Polytechnique, and in 1854 rector of the academy at Nancy and professor of astronomy in the faculty of science there. Other promotions followed in succeeding decades. He became Minister of Public Instruction in the Rochebouet cabinet in 1877, a position which he held only briefly. Faye served as the President of the Société Astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society, from 1889 to 1891.de la Société astronomique de France'', 1911, vol. 25, pp. 581-586
/ref> He also served as President of the International Geodetic Association from 1892 to 1902. His work covered the entire field of astronomical investigation. It comprised the determination of comet periods, the measurement of parallaxes, and the study of stellar and planetary movements. He also studied the physics of the

sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

. He advanced several original theories on the nature and form of comets, meteors, the

aurora borealis An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of br ...

, and the sun.

Religious beliefs

In his work ''Sur l'origine du Monde'', Faye quoted the beginning of

Psalm 19 Psalm 19 is the 19th psalm in the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septua ...

, "''Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei''" ("The heavens declare the glory of God") and stated,

We run no risk of deceiving ourselves in considering it uperior Intelligencethe author of all things, in referring to it those splendours of the heavens which aroused our thoughts: and finally we are ready to understand and accept the traditional formula: God, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Publications

In collaboration with Charles Galusky he translated Humboldt's ''Cosmos'' (four volumes, 1846–59), and, in addition to numerous contributions to scientific periodicals, published the following important works: * ''Sur les déclinaisons absolues'' (1850) * ''Leçons de cosmographie'' (1852; second edition, 1854) * ''Sur les cyclones solaires'' (1873) * ''Cours d'astronomie de l'Ecole Polytechnique'' (two volumes, 1881–83) * ''Sur l'origine du monde'' (1884; third edition, enlarged 1895) * ''Nouvelle étude sur les tempêtes, cyclones, trombes, ou tornadoes'' (1897)

References

External links

H. Faye
@

Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is an online database of over 16 million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for almost all articles, and full scanned a ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faye, Herve 1814 births 1902 deaths 19th-century French astronomers French Roman Catholics Discoverers of comets Members of the French Academy of Sciences Burials at Passy Cemetery Recipients of the Lalande Prize École Polytechnique alumni École Polytechnique faculty