Giovanni Schiaparelli

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( born March 14, 1835 in Savigliano in Cuneo, † July 4, 1910 in Milan ) was an Italian astronomer. From 1864 to 1900 he was director of the Brera Observatory in Milan.

Schiaparelli (pronounced Skiaparelli ) is considered the scharfäugigste astronomer of his century and was particularly known for his observations of the planets Mercury, Venus and Mars. On the latter he discovered in 1877 apparent delicate gutters, which were soon called by the media Martian channels and 80 years were a research topic. Schiaparelli also explored eudoxische trajectories ( Hippopeden ) and numerous comets and was able to demonstrate their connection with the annual meteor showers. Later on, he dealt, inter alia, to with history of astronomy and in particular with sky- known overall point of the Old Testament.

Life and work

Schiaparelli graduated in 1854 at the University of Turin in the engineering sciences of architecture and hydraulics. For some time he pursued private studies in astronomy, mathematics and languages. In 1856 he got a position as a mathematics teacher at a primary school in Turin. In order to become an astronomer, he studied from 1857 for two years at the Berlin Observatory under the then Director Johann Franz Encke. Another year he worked at Pulkovo Observatory under the direction of Wilhelm Struve. 1860 Schiaparelli returned back to Italy for a position as a " secondo Astronomo " to compete in Milan at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera under Francesco Carlini.

He became world famous through his Mars observations and the supposed discovery of the so-called canals of Mars ( Canali ) in the year 1877, when the Mars Earth was especially close. These linear features were near the limit of visibility of the then 30 - to 50cm - lens telescopes and required special observation experience. Only when the next Mars opposition in 1879 their sighting was confirmed by other astronomers.

Schiaparelli thought she was naturally formed, linear depressions of up to 2000 km in length and about 100 kilometers wide, through which water could possibly spread to the otherwise dry surface (La vita sul pianeta Marte, 1893). But a faulty translation into English ( canals instead of the correct channels) left many journalists think of engineering structures. So science fiction novels and a decades- long myth of Martians emerged. 1894 Percival Lowell built the Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona to explore the canals of Mars and the suspected on Mars life more accurately.

In 1965 finished the photos of the U.S. probe Mariner 4 these speculations. The canals of Mars are now partly an optical illusion ( line amplification by correlated irritation of adjacent photoreceptor cells ); the two-dimensional representations Antoniadis of 1910-30, however, are hardly detailed. However, about half of the mapped by Schiaparelli and other astronomers canals of Mars are likely actual canyons, linear terrain shadows, valley systems or crater chains correspond. Anyway inspire the canals of Mars the imagination of writers to this day.

Schiaparelli's astronomical research also concerned the Mercury, the Venus, the solar activity and the double star. Depending on a crater on the Moon, Mercury and Mars was named after him. He proved in an award-winning work that the meteor shower of Perseids ( August- shooting stars ) associated with the comet Swift -Tuttle in 1862.

On Mars, he also devoted himself to better nomenclature and the changes of reddish and greenish- gray areas and the white polar caps.

Since 1870 he was a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, 1872, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1889 he was appointed Senator of the Kingdom. In 1873 he became a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

According to the astronomers of the lunar crater Schiaparelli and the same Martian craters are named.

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