Research Catalog

Title

The Milky Way galaxy and statistical cosmology, 1890-1924 / Erich Robert Paul.

Author

Paul, Erich Robert, 1943-1994.

Publication

Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 262 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• Between the years 1890 and 1924, the dominant view of the Universe suggested a cosmology largely foreign to contemporary ideas. First, astronomers believed they had confirmed that the Sun was roughly in the center of our star system, the Milky Way Galaxy. Second, considerable evidence indicated that the size of the Galaxy was only about one-third the value accepted by today's astronomers.
• Third, it was thought that interstellar space was completely transparent, that there was no absorbing material between the stars. Fourth, astronomers believed that the Universe was composed of numerous star systems comparable to the Milky Way Galaxy. The method that provided this picture and came to dominate cosmology was "statistical" in nature, because it was based on the counts of stars and their positions, motions, brightnesses, and stellar spectra
• . Drawing on previously neglected archival material, Professor Paul describes the rise of this statistical cosmology in light of developments in nineteenth-century astronomy and explains how this cosmology set the stage for many of the most significant developments we associate with the astronomy of the twentieth century. Statistical astronomy was the crucial link that provided much of modern astronomical science with its foundation.

Subjects

• Cosmology > Statistical methods > History
• Milky Way > History
• Statistical astronomy > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-254) and index.

Contents

• Abbreviations of Manuscript Sources -- 1. Early Nineteenth-Century Statistical Astronomy. William Herschel and the "Construction of the Heavens" F. G. W. Struve and Galactic Theory, circa 1850. John Herschel and Mid-century Cosmology -- 2. Statistical Astronomy and the Milky Way Galaxy. The Bonner Durchmusterung and Stellar Distributions. Cosmology and Stellar Studies, circa 1880. Proper Motions, Parallaxes, and Stellar Distances. Statistical Cosmology: Seeliger and Kapteyn -- 3. Seeliger and Stellar Density. The Early Years. Statistical Cosmology and Universal Gravitation. Stellar Cosmology and Statistical Astronomy -- 4. Kapteyn and the Distribution of Stars. Early Developments. Methodology and the Discovery of Star-Streaming. Distribution of Stars -- 5. Statistical Astronomy as a Research Program, 1900-1915. Assumptions and Research Problems, circa 1900. Research Problems and Stellar Distributions, circa 1910. Research Problems and Stellar Motions, circa 1910.
• Methodology, Stellar Statistics, and Scientific Explanation -- 6. Statistical Cosmology as a Research Program, 1915-1922. Statistical Cosmology, 1915-1920. Seeliger's Cosmology. The "Kapteyn Universe" Statistical Cosmology, 1910-1922 -- 7. Internationalization of Astronomy. Kapteyn and International Science. Seeliger and German Astronomy. Internationalizing of Statistical Cosmology -- 8. The Decline of a Research Program. Shapley's Cosmology. The Dutch Reaction. The German and Swedish Responses. The Beginning of a New Consensus -- 9. Conclusion: Research Programs in Transition. The "New Astronomy" Concluding Comments -- Appendix I: Seeliger's Star-Ratio Function -- Appendix II: Seeliger's Density Theorem.

ISBN

0521353637

LCCN

92036530

OCLC

• 26764126
• ocm26764126

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries