Quarter 3 Astronomer Biography

Edward E Barnard

Edward Emerson Barnard was a noted American astronomer from the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries. Barnard grew up in a relatively un-wealthy family, and thus lacked much formal education. At the young age of 9, Emerson began his career as an assistant photographer. From here, his career as an astronomer commenced. His interest in photography led Emerson to find a desire to study the heavens. In 1876, Emerson purchased his first telescope, a 5 inch refractor telescope, with which he discovered his first comet in 1881, and another later that year. In 1889, Emerson made one of his first major astronomical observations; he observed the moon Lapetus pass behind the rings of Saturn. Also, he had unwillingly and without taking notice, discovered spokes in Saturn’s ring, which would then be proven to exist by Voyager 1. In addition to these observations, Barnard was the first to discover the 5^th moon of Jupiter, Amalthea, the first discovery of a new Jovian moon since Galileo in 1609. This was also the last discovery of a satellite simply by naked-eye observation. Barnard’s career as a professional astronomer had launched. In 1895 he became a professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago. While teaching there, he was able to use the 40 inch telescope at the Yerkes Observatory, with which he took many photographs of the Milky Way, discovering that dark, seemingly empty regions of the galaxy were actually clouds of dust and gas that obscured distant background stars. Barnard photographed many dark nebulae, and he catalogued them with numerical designations, similar to Messier’s catalog. These became known as Barnard objects, and are labeled Barnard 1 – Barnard 370. A few years after the publication of his objects, Barnard died at the relatively young age of 65. Many of Barnard’s photographs are still used to this day, and his catalog allows for the simple classification of dark nebulae today. In addition to this, Barnard discovered a faint star, now known as Barnard’s star. This star is the second closest star to the Earth, following the Alpha Centauri system. The discoveries and observations of Edward E Barnard helped to reshaped astronomy and have allowed for the benefit of astronomers today.