On This Day In History: Great American Astronomer G. E. Hale Died – On Feb 21, 1938

| February 21, 2017 | On This Day In History | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com –  The American astronomer, George Ellery Hale died on February 21, 1938.

He developed important astronomical instruments, including the Hale Telescope, a 200-inch (508-cm) reflector at the Palomar Observatory, near San Diego.

Hale not only contributed to astronomy by building four of the world’s largest telescopes, he also founded an astronomical society, started the Astrophysical Journal, and was the first person to be officially called an astrophysicist.

Hale built four observatories and helped create the new discipline of astrophysics. He is known also for his research in solar physics, particularly his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots.

Hale died in 1938, a decade before the telescope began operation. Named after Hale at its dedication in June 1948, the telescope remained the world’s largest for decades. Once one of the world’s most famous scientists, Hale slowly faded from public memory. Nevertheless, his contributions were monumental, like the giant telescope that bears his name. “He put the physics in astrophysics,” said Rocky Kolb, Professor and Chairman of Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Hale died in 1938, a decade before the telescope began operation. Named after Hale at its dedication in June 1948, the telescope remained the world’s largest for decades. Once one of the world’s most famous scientists, Hale slowly faded from public memory. Nevertheless, his contributions were monumental, like the giant telescope that bears his name. “He put the physics in astrophysics,” said Rocky Kolb, Professor and Chairman of Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Hale became interested in astronomy at the age of 14. While attending MIT as an undergraduate, his wealthy father presented him with a spectroscopic laboratory. Hale began working on the unanswered questions connected with the nature of the solar spectrum and took up the challenge of photographing prominences outside of an eclipse.

In 1892, in the pursuit of his undergraduate thesis, Hale built a spectroheliograph, which could photograph solar features that radiated within a particular line of the sun’s spectrum.

:George Ellery Hale (1868–1938)
George Ellery Hale (1868–1938)

Hale caught the public’s attention following an 1892 newspaper article which read:

“To be an able astronomer at twenty-four is something; to have acquired a special knowledge of a special subject in science that is rare even among scientific men is something more. If the future of his work may be gathered from its past, Professor Hale will certainly add more to the stock of human knowledge about the Sun than any other one man.”

Unfortunately, Hale died almost a decade before the commemoration of the Palomar telescope that bears his name.

First version of this article was originally published on February 21, 2017.

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