James Ferguson (August 31, 1797 – September 26, 1867) was a Scottish-born American

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 ...

and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, who made the first discovery of an asteroid from

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(

31 Euphrosyne Euphrosyne ( minor planet designation: 31 Euphrosyne) is a very young asteroid. It is the one of the largest asteroids (approximately tied for 7th place, to within measurement uncertainties). It was discovered by James Ferguson on September 1, 1 ...

Biography

James Ferguson was born in Scotland on August 31, 1797, and his family moved to the United states in 1800. Between the ages of 17 and 19, as an assistant engineer, he helped to build the

Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...

. Afterwards he was appointed as an astronomical surveyor, surveying the U.S. Northwest boarder as part of the

Treaty of Ghent The Treaty of Ghent () was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. It took effect in February 1815. Both sides signed it on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, United Netherlands (now in ...

Starting in 1847, he worked at the

U.S. Naval Observatory United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. He worked on the 9.6 inch refractor telescope. Ferguson was confirmed at the Church of the Epiphany in 1863. Ferguson was considered a bright

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

and had written 84 papers as well as contributions to scientific magazines.

Discoveries

Throughout the years, Ferguson discovered three

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. The first,

, is the first numbered minor planet to be discovered from North America. In 1850, he discovered

50 Virginia Virginia (minor planet designation: 50 Virginia) is a large, very dark main belt asteroid. It was discovered by American astronomer James Ferguson on October 4, 1857, from the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. German astronomer ...

. The asteroid was also independently discovered by

Robert Luther Karl Theodor Robert Luther (April 16, 1822, Świdnica – February 15, 1900 Düsseldorf), normally published as Robert Luther, was a German astronomer. While working at the Bilk Observatory in Düsseldorf, Germany, he searched for asteroids and ...

, who reported it first, but is now credited to Ferguson. In 1850, he "lost" a star that he had been observing, which Lt. Matthew Maury, the superintendent of the Observatory, claimed was evidence for a

9th planet Planet Nine is a List of hypothetical Solar System objects, hypothetical planet in the outer region of the Solar System. Its gravitational effects could explain the peculiar clustering of orbits for a group of extreme trans-Neptunian objects ...

(

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...

had not yet been discovered). In 1878, however,

CHF Peters Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters (September 19, 1813 – July 18, 1890) was a German–American university teacher and astronomer at the Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, New York, and a pioneer in the study and visual discovery of ...

, director of the

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...

Observatory in New York, showed that the star had not in fact vanished, and that the previous results had been due to human error.

Honors and awards

The asteroid

1745 Ferguson Events January–March * January 7 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Austrian Army, under the command of Field Marshal Károly József Batthyány, makes a surprise attack at Amberg and the winter quarters of the Bavarian ...

, discovered from the same observatory, was later named in his honour. He was awarded the

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 1801 ...

twice, in 1854 and in 1860.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, James 1797 births 1867 deaths 19th-century American astronomers Discoverers of asteroids 19th-century American engineers Recipients of the Lalande Prize