Dr. Thomas A. Hockey
Department of Earth Science
University of Northern Iowa
Copyright July 2007
How do astronomers (and cosmologists) die?
I deal in death. Most of the entries in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers,
which I edited, fit the definition. Moreover, as vice-chair of the American Astronomical
Society’s Historical Astronomy Division, I edit all the obituaries that appear in the B. A.
A. S.
I have learned, not unexpectedly, that most astronomers die of natural causes--like
everyone else. But this is unfortunate for the history of astronomy, because an
unexpected death leaves behind a documentary snapshot of the deceased’s undertakings
in life at the time of mortality.
The classic case is Giordano Bruno, who was famously burnt at the stake. Yet Bruno is a
bad example of martyrdom to science: His crime was heresy, not astronomy, and he
almost invited execution by returning from Protestant Europe to Rome. While it may be
true that “nobody expects the Spanish inquisition,” any sane person must surely expect
the Italian inquisition!
For me, a more poignant example is Boris Vasilevich Numerov, one of the principal
organizers of Soviet astronomy after the Bolshevik revolution. He was “rewarded” by a
firing squad during a Stalin purge, sadly, not before implicating (implausibly) nearly the
entire staff of the Pulkovo Observatory as fascist spies. This led to their arrests and
Pulkovo’s demise as one of the world’s great observatories. It is an episode further
reminding us that torture is an unreliable source of truth.
Less well known is the fact that asteroid-hunter Auguste Charlois was murdered in cold
blood--as he stood poised to discover his one-hundredth minor planet. Was it the work of
a jealous competitor? Did Charlois play Mozart to another astronomer’s Salieri? It
might be the makings of a profitable screen play were that the case. However, the reality
of the matter is that Charlois’s killer was his own sister’s husband, during an argument
over a matter unrelated to astronomy. (And you and I thought that our brothers-in-law
were a little “off”!)
The French Revolution was hard on astronomers: Celestial mechanists Jean-Sylvain
Bailly and Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Bochart de Saron were guillotined. Moreover, there
were several near misses. (By “near miss” I mean other French astronomers who
narrowly avoided the death penalty; As far as I know, the guillotine itself did not miss.)
The list of astronomers killed in battle begins with Archimedes’s fall to a roman sword.
(Archimedes deserves to be called an astronomer, I think, because the “sand reckoner”
was one of the first to attempt calculation of the distance to the Sun.) The man who first
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accessorized his telescope for astrometry, William Gascoigne, was lost fighting on the
Royalist side during the Battle of Marston Moor. Peter Ramus rejected Scholasticism,
and embraced Protestantism--bad timing: He died in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day
Massacre
Sultan Ulugh Beg founded the Samarqand Observatory. He was assassinated during a
palace insurrection--by his own son. This is the only instance of astronomical patricide
that I have discovered. Still, if you know others, be sure to let me know.)
Travel is a grim reaper of astronomers: Margaritta Palmer, Howard Percy Robertson,
Carl Keenan Seyfert, and Andrew David Thackeray all died in automobile accidents,
rhe latter on his way back from an observing “run.”
In the nineteenth century, it was the train that wrecked and killed sunspot-modeler
Balfour Stewart. Several astronomers have expired at sea. However, Charles-Eugene
Delaunay, one-time director of the Paris Observatory, actually passed away in the line of
duty, when his ship wrecked. Ironically, it was a surveying expedition . . . My favorite
astronomical transportation disaster--if “favorite” is the right word for it--is the end of
Arthur Bambridge Wyse, who perished in a freak blimp accident.
Here is my top-three list of truly horrible astronomical demises:
#3. Qattan al-Mazari, who wrote an influential astronomical treatise in Persian, was
tortured to death by filling his mouth with soil. I intend to consult an Islamicist about
whether an astronomer being choked by earth was considered to be symbolic, or whether
that was just how people did business back then.
#2. The leader of the Alexandrine Neo-platonic school was Hypatia. She was pulled
from her chariot, stripped, and skinned alive using sharp oyster shells. The murderous
mob was made up of my fellow Christians: Thank goodness; “otherwise” the event
might have been quite nasty! Did I mention that Hypatia was the last leader of the pagan
Alexandrine Neo-platonic school?
And #1. After the west lost touch with Byzantium, one of our few links to the Hellenistic
past was Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Böthius. Böthius’s written work bridged
the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Regrettably, his execution was more on the
medieval side: A cord was tied around Böthius’s forehead and: (I now quote.)
“So tightly that his eyes cracked in their sockets, and finally, while under torture, he was
beaten to death with a cudgel.” I appreciate the paper sorters not positioning me
immediately before lunch . . .
I began today with skepticism over Bruno’s status as a martyr to astronomy. I close with
a man i consider to be a much better example: John James Waterston was one of the
many fine British scientists who tried to solve the solar energy problem. While
attempting to measure the solar radiant energy, Waterston suffered heat stroke.
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Thereafter he was subject to unpredictable fits of dizziness. The story is sketchy, but
apparently such a spell hit him while strolling along the bank of the Edinburgh River.
Waterston is supposed to have fallen in and drowned. Oddly, his body was never found.
I believe that how astronomers died is an important part of astronomical biography. It is
second only to how they lived. I move on now to my latest task, as managing editor of
the journal Archaeoastronomy, where the subjects are even “deader.”
Thank you.
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