Hervé Auguste Étienne Albans Faye ( – ) was a French

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

, born at

Saint-Benoît-du-Sault Saint-Benoît-du-Sault (; ) is a commune in the Indre department in central France. It is a medieval village, perched in a curve on a rocky butte overlooking the Portefeuille River in the former province of Berry. Since 1988, it has been a me ...

(

Indre Indre (); is a 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 administrative region of Cent ...

) and educated at the

École Polytechnique (, ; also known as Polytechnique or l'X ) is a ''grande école'' located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris. The school was founded in 1794 by mat ...

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

Paris Observatory The Paris Observatory (, ), a research institution of the Paris Sciences et Lettres University, is the foremost astronomical observatory of France, and one of the largest astronomical centres in the world. Its historic building is on the Left Ban ...

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 warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, and discovered the periodic comet

4P/Faye Comet 4P/Faye (also known as Faye's Comet or Comet Faye) is a periodic Jupiter-family comet discovered in November 1843 by Hervé Faye at the Royal Observatory in Paris. Its most recent perihelia (closest approaches to the Sun) were on No ...

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 1801 ...

and a membership in the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. In 1848 he became an instructor in

geodesy Geodesy or geodetics is the science of measuring and representing the Figure of the Earth, geometry, Gravity of Earth, gravity, and Earth's rotation, spatial orientation of the Earth in Relative change, temporally varying Three-dimensional spac ...

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.''Bulletin 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 centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

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

aurora borealis An aurora ( aurorae or auroras), also commonly known as the northern lights (aurora borealis) or southern lights (aurora australis), is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly observed in high-latitude regions (around the Arc ...

, 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 almighty of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Se ...

, "''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 a digital library portal for researchers on astronomy and physics, operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. ADS maintains three bibliographic collections containing over 15 ...

{{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 Academic staff of École Polytechnique French geodesists