Hugo von Seeliger (23 September 1849 – 2 December 1924), also known as Hugo Hans Ritter von Seeliger, was a German astronomer, often considered the most important astronomer of his day.

Biography

He was born in Biala, completed high school in Teschen in 1867, and studied at the Universities of

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

and

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

. He earned a doctorate in astronomy in 1872 from the latter, studying under

Carl Christian Bruhns Karl Christian Bruhns (22 November 1830 – 25 July 1881) was a German astronomer. Biography He was the son of a locksmith, and in 1851 went as locksmith and mechanic, first to Borsig, and then to Berlin with the firm of Siemens and Halske. In ...

. He was on the staff of the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

Observatory until 1877, as an assistant to Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander. In 1874, he directed the German expedition to the Auckland Islands to observe the

transit of Venus frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet, becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a trans ...

. In 1881, he became the Director of the Gotha Observatory, and in 1882 became a Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory at the University of Munich, which post he held until his death. His students included

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Ernst Anding Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (1975- ...

Julius Bauschinger Julius Bauschinger (January 28, 1860 – January 21, 1934) was a German astronomer. Biography Julius Bauschinger was born in Fürth, the son of the physicist Johann Bauschinger. He studied at the Universities of Munich and Berlin, graduating un ...

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Gustav Herglotz Gustav Herglotz (2 February 1881 – 22 March 1953) was a German Bohemian physicist best known for his works on the theory of relativity and seismology. Biography Gustav Ferdinand Joseph Wenzel Herglotz was born in Volary num. 28 to a public not ...

, Richard Schorr, and especially

Karl Schwarzschild Karl Schwarzschild (; 9 October 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German physicist and astronomer. Schwarzschild provided the first exact solution to the Einstein field equations of general relativity, for the limited case of a single spherical non-r ...

, who earned a doctorate under him in 1898, and acknowledged Seeliger's influence in speeches throughout his career. Seeliger was elected an Associate of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

in 1892, and President of the Astronomische Gesellschaft from 1897 to 1921. He received numerous honours and medals, including knighthood (''Ritter''), between 1896 and 1917. His contributions to astronomy include an explanation of the anomalous motion of the perihelion of Mercury (later one of the main tests of general relativity), a theory of

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

coming from the collision of a star with a cloud of gas, and his confirmation of

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and ligh ...

's theories of the composition of the rings of Saturn by studying variations in their albedo. He is also the discoverer of an apparent paradox in

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...

's gravitational law, known as Seeliger's Paradox. However his main interest was in the stellar statistics of the

Bonner Durchmusterung In astronomy, Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung (BD) is an astrometric star catalogue of the whole sky, compiled by the Bonn Observatory in Germany from 1859 to 1903. The name comes from ('run-through examination'), a German word used for ...

and Bonn section of the Astronomische Gesellschaft star catalogues, and in the conclusions these led about the structure of the universe. Seeliger's views on the dimensions of our galaxy were consistent with

Jacobus Kapteyn Prof Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn FRS FRSE LLD (19 January 1851 – 18 June 1922) was a Dutch astronomer. He carried out extensive studies of the Milky Way and was the discoverer of evidence for galactic rotation. Kapteyn was also among the fi ...

's later studies. Seeliger was an opponent of Albert Einstein's

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

.Weinstein, Galina. (2016). ''General Relativity Conflict and Rivalries: Einstein's Polemics with Physicists''. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 211–212. He continued his work until his death, on 2 December 1924, aged 75. 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. ...

892 Seeligeria and the

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The wor ...

Seeliger Seeliger is a name meaning "blessed man" in German and Yiddish. It may refer to: * Hugo von Seeliger (1849–1924), German astronomer * Rudolf Seeliger (1886–1965), German physicist * Thomas Seeliger (born 1966, Medebach), German footballer and ...

were named in his honour. The brightening of Saturn's rings at

opposition Opposition may refer to: Arts and media * ''Opposition'' (Altars EP), 2011 EP by Christian metalcore band Altars * The Opposition (band), a London post-punk band * ''The Opposition with Jordan Klepper'', a late-night television series on Comed ...

is known as the

Seeliger Effect The opposition surge (sometimes known as the opposition effect, opposition spike or Seeliger effect) is the brightening of a rough surface, or an object with many particles, when illuminated from directly behind the observer. The term is most wid ...

, to acknowledge his pioneering research in this field. Minor planet

251 Sophia 251 Sophia is a stony background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 4 October 1885, by astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory in Austria. The S-type asteroid (S/L) has a rotation period of 20. ...

is named after his wife, Sophia.

Students

His PhD students were (afte
Mathematics Genealogy Project, Hugo Hans von Seeliger
: *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1884 *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1888 * Richard Schorr, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1889 * Karl Oertel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1890 * Oscar Hecker, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1891 * Adalbert Bock, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1892 * George Myers, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1896 *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München 1897 *

Lucian Grabowski Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstitio ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1900 *

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1900 * Emil Silbernagel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1905 * Ernst Zapp, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1907 * Kasimir Jantzen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1912 * Wilhelm Keil, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1918 *

Friedrich Burmeister Friedrich Burmeister (1890–1969) was a German geophysicist. He was director of the Munich University’s Geomagnetic Observatory. Burmeister studied mathematics and physics at the University of Munich under Hugo von Seeliger and Arnold So ...

, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1919 * Gustav Schnauder, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1921 * Walter Sametinger, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1924

References

Freddy Litten:Hugo von Seeliger – Kurzbiographie
Short biography (in German).
Obituary: Professor Hugo von Seeliger
Scan from "The Observatory", Vol. 48, p. 77 (1925), presented by Smithsonian/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service * {{DEFAULTSORT:Seeliger, Hugo von 1849 births 1924 deaths People from Biała People from Austrian Silesia 20th-century German astronomers 19th-century German astronomers Bavarian nobility Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich faculty Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Relativity critics Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala