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Studies of the Milky Way 1850–1930: some highlights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Robert W. Smith
Robert W. Smith*
Affiliation:
Space Telescope History Project

Extract

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“The Copernicus of the sidereal system is not to be expected for many generations”. So wrote R.A. Proctor1 in his Essays in Astronomy in 1872. Indeed things did look bleak at this time for those who hoped for a good understanding of the size and structure of the Galaxy. Why was this so, and why was there to be such an astonishing transformation of this situation between 1918 and 1930? Certainly these twelve years saw the widespread acceptance of no less than six fundamentally new ways of viewing the Galactic System. These profound shifts, occurring in such a short time, form, I would suggest, one of the most exciting chapters in the entire history of astronomy. And in this paper I shall attempt to describe and analyze what these changes were, what led up to them, as well as to examine the events surrounding them.

Type
PART I: HISTORY OF GALACTIC RESEARCH
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 106: The Milky Way Galaxy , 1985 , pp. 43 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1985 

References

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