George Ellery Hale: Difference between revisions
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== Popular Culture == |
== Popular Culture == |
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[[Fox Mulder]] uses the pseudonym "George E. Hale" on several occasions in the TV Series [[The X-Files]], most notable in Season 2, Episode 1 "Little Green Men", and Season 2 Episode 4 "Sleepless". |
[[Fox Mulder]] uses the pseudonym "George E. Hale" on several occasions in the TV Series [[The X-Files]], most notable in Season 2, Episode 1 "Little Green Men", and Season 2 Episode 4 "Sleepless". |
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[[Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule]] has an episode on "space" which references a real fact about Hale in passing. |
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== References == |
== References == |
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Revision as of 14:28, 26 May 2014
George Ellery Hale | |
|---|---|
 George Ellery Hale, c. 1913 | |
| Born | June 29, 1868 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Died | February 21, 1938 (aged 69) Pasadena, California, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Known for | Spectroheliograph |
| Spouse | Evelina Conklin Hale |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
George Ellery Hale (June 29, 1868 – February 21, 1938) was an American solar astronomer.
Biography
Hale was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was educated at MIT, at the Observatory of Harvard College, (1889–90), and at Berlin (1893–94). As an undergraduate at MIT, he is known for inventing the spectrohelioscope, with which he made his discovery of solar vortices. In 1908, he used the Zeeman effect with a modified spectrohelioscope to establish that sunspots were magnetic.[1] Subsequent work demonstrated a strong tendency for east-west alignment of magnetic polarities in sunspots, with mirror symmetry across the solar equator; and that the polarity in each hemisphere switched orientation from one sunspot cycle to the next.[2] This systematic property of sunspot magnetic fields is now commonly referred to as the "Hale-Nicholson law,"[3] or in many cases simply "Hale's law."
In 1890, he was appointed director of the Kenwood Astrophysical Observatory; he was professor of Astrophysics at Beloit College (1891–93); associate professor at the University of Chicago until 1897, and full professor (1897–1905). He was coeditor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 1892–95, and after 1895 editor of the Astrophysical Journal. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1921-1923.
Hale was a driven individual, who worked to found a number of significant astronomical observatories, including Yerkes Observatory, Mount Wilson Observatory, Palomar Observatory, and the Hale Solar Laboratory. At Mount Wilson, he hired and encouraged Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble toward some of the most significant discoveries of the time. He was a prolific organizer who helped create a number of astronomical institutions, societies and journals. Hale also played a central role in developing the California Institute of Technology into a leading research university. After retiring as director at Mount Wilson, he built the Hale Solar Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as his office and workshop, pursuing his interest in the sun.[4][5]
Hale suffered from neurological and psychological problems, including insomnia, frequent headaches, and depression. The often-repeated myth of schizophrenia,[6] alleging he claimed to have regular visits from an elf who acted as his advisor, arose from a misunderstanding by one of his biographers. [7] He used to take time off to spend a few months at a sanatorium in Maine. These problems forced him to resign as director of Mount Wilson.[6]
Honors and awards
- 1894 Janssen Medal from the Paris Academy of Sciences[8]
- 1902 Rumford Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences[8]
- 1904 Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences[8][9]
- 1904 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society[8]
- 1916 Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific[8]
- 1917 Prix Jules Janssen from the French Astronomical Society[10]
- 1919 Elected an associate of Academie des Sciences, Institut de France[8]
- 1920 Galileo Medal from the University of Florence[8]
- 1921 Actonian Prize from Royal Institution of London[8]
- 1926 Elliott Cresson Medal in Physics from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia[8]
- 1926 Arthur Noble Medal from the City of Pasadena[8][11]
- 1927 Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia[8]
- 1932 Sir Godfrey Copley Medal from the Royal Society of Great Britain[8]
- 1935 Frederic Ives Medal from the Optical Society of America[8]
- Foreign Member of the Royal Society[12]
- Medal of Merit of the Order of Leopold from Belgium[8]
- Order of the Crown of Italy[8]
- Honorary Member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences[8]
Legacy
- Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory
- 22-year solar Hale cycle
- 1024 Hale asteroid
- Hale lunar crater
- Hale Martian crater
- George Ellery Hale Middle School, Woodland Hills, California
- Hale House, Shoreland Hall, University of Chicago
- Hale Building, Pasadena, California
- George Ellery Hale Prize, awarded by the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society
Popular Culture
Fox Mulder uses the pseudonym "George E. Hale" on several occasions in the TV Series The X-Files, most notable in Season 2, Episode 1 "Little Green Men", and Season 2 Episode 4 "Sleepless".
Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule has an episode on "space" which references a real fact about Hale in passing.
References
- Notes
- ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1086/141602, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1086/141602instead. - ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1086/142452, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with
|doi=10.1086/142452instead. - ^ Astrophysics of the sun, Harold Zirin, Cambridge University Press, 1988, p.307; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988assu.book.....Z
- ^ "George Ellery Hale". Mount Wilson Observatory Association. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- ^ "Hale Solar Laboratory". Astronomy and Astrophysics. U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
- ^ a b Hale, George Ellery (1868-1938) - from Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography. Scienceworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved on 2013-08-25.
- ^ Hale's "Little Elf": The Mental Breakdowns of George Ellery Hale, Sheehan, W. & Osterbrock, D. E., Journal for the History of Astronomy, xxxi (2000), p.93; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2000JHA....31...93S
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "The Case File: George Ellery Hale". The Franklin Institute. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- ^ "Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
- ^ "Prix et Médailles décernés par la Société depuis sa fondation". L'Astronomie. 93. SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System: 543. 1979. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
- ^ "The Arthur Noble Medal, City of Pasadena". The Caltech Archives. 1926. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
- ^ Newall, pp. 522–26.
- Bibliography
- Adams, Walter S. (1939). "Biographical Memoir of George Ellery Hale, 1869-1938" (PDF). Biographical Memoirs. 21 (5). National Academy of Sciences: 181–241. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
- Adams, Walter S. (May 1938). "George Ellery Hale, 1868–1938". The Astrophysical Journal. 87 (4). American Astronomical Society: 369–87. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Babcock, H. D. (1938). "George Ellery Hale". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 50 (295). Astronomical Society of the Pacific: 156–65. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Dyson, F. W. (1939). "George Ellery Hale". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 99. Royal Astronomical Society: 322–27. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Newall, H. F. (January 1939). "George Ellery Hale, 1868–1938". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 2 (7). Royal Society Publishing: 522–526. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
- Van Maanen, A. (1938). "George Ellery Hale, 1868–1938". Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. 32. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada: 192–94. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- Wright, Helen (1966). Explorer of the Universe: A Biography of George Ellery Hale. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 9781563962493.
- Wright, Helen (1972). The Legacy of George Ellery Hale. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ISBN 9780262230490.
External links
- Bruce Medal
- Awarding of the Bruce Medal: PASP 28 (1916) 12
- Awarding of the RAS gold medal: MNRAS 64 (1904) 388
- The New Heavens by George Ellery Hale, 1922, from Project Gutenberg
- Caltech archive search
- The Journey to Palomar, 2008 PBS documentary
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
| Warning | Local parameters are deprecated. |
- 1868 births
- 1938 deaths
- American astronomers
- People from Chicago, Illinois
- Harvard University alumni
- American journalists
- Recipients of the Copley Medal
- Recipients of the Bruce Medal
- California Institute of Technology faculty
- Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Beloit College faculty
- Foreign Members of the Royal Society
- National Academy of Sciences laureates
- Elliott Cresson Medal recipients