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- Title
OLBERS'S PLANETARY EXPLOSION HYPOTHESIS: GENESIS AND EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY INTERPRETATIONS.
- Authors
CUNNINGHAM, CLIFFORD J.
- Abstract
The article discusses astronomer Wilhelm Olbers' role in the development of the planetary catastrophic explosion hypothesis concerning the formation of asteroids. After explaining Olbers' discovery of the asteroid Pallas, the author explains Olbers' correspondence with astronomers Carl Gauss, Nevil Maskelyne, and William Herschel, which helped him develop the notion that asteroids were created by a larger planet being struck by a comet. The way in which the journal of astronomer Baron Franz von Zach spread Olbers' hypothesis across Europe is detailed. Reactions to the hypothesis from French astronomers such as Pierre-Simon Laplace and Joseph Louis Lagrange are also explained.
- Subjects
OLBERS, W. (Wilhelm), 1758-1840; ASTEROIDS; PLANETARY theory; GAUSS, Carl Friedrich, 1777-1855; MASKELYNE, Nevil; ZACH, Franz Xaver, Freiherr von, 1754-1832; LAPLACE, Pierre Simon, marquis de, 1749-1827; LAGRANGE, J. L. (Joseph Louis), 1736-1813; PALLAS (Asteroid)
- Publication
Journal for the History of Astronomy, 2013, Vol 44, Issue 2, p187
- ISSN
0021-8286
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/002182861304400205