George darwin
George Darwin (Down House, July 9, 1845 - Cambridge, December 7, 1912) was a British astronomer, son of naturalist Charles Darwin. He made studies on the energy source of the Sun, the spherical shape of rotating fluids, the restricted three-body problem, and the origin of the Moon. In 1892, he won the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, an organization of which he was later president.
Biography
George Darwin was born in Down House, in the county of Kent. He was the son of Charles and Emma Darwin. At the age of eleven he began secondary school in Clapham, where he studied with Charles Pritchard, and in 1863 he entered Saint John's College, Cambridge University, although he soon transferred to Trinity College of the same university, where his tutor was Edward John Routh.
He graduated in 1868 as a second wrangler, when he also placed second in the Smith prize and received a college scholarship. He was admitted to the bar in 1871, but returned to science afterwards. In June 1879 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He was Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge University until 1884.
Professor of Experimental Physics, in 1885 he was elected a member of the meteorological directorate. He studied the effects of the tide on the planets. Using methods introduced by Pierre-Simon Laplace and William Thomson, he applied a model for the origin of the solar system, today considered incorrect. He made a further study of the three-body problem in the case of the orbits of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. He also studied the stability of rotating fluids motivated by his interest in the Moon, to explain how it could have been formed by a molten fluid from Earth.
In addition, he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society between 1899 and 1900 and won that society's gold medal in 1892. In 1911 he received the Copley Medal.
Theory of the origin of the Moon
After mathematical calculations, Darwin concluded the trajectories of the Moon in the past, colliding with the planet Earth itself. This discovery originated one of the current theories of lunar formation that deals with a period of approximately 4,500 million years. The Earth was a semi-solid mass, quite easily deformed, which after its movement tears a large part of its surface and mantle into space and after the gravitational attraction the Earth takes it as its Moon, so it would follow Darwin's calculations correctly. ascendant until finally moving away as it is today with only 16% influence, which was not that of that moment.
Discoveries in favor of Darwin's theory
Using a laser from an observatory with a mirror from the moon, the distance of the Earth-Moon is measured and it has been found that they move a few centimeters (approx. 16) per year, justifying Darwin's calculations.
Discoveries against Darwin's theory
The Apollo mission that reached the moon studied the lunar crust in search of a rocky species very similar to the terrestrial one, but the results were negative. If it were positive, this would give more and more certainty of the theory.
In addition to this, the theory of the great impact takes so much force that it is currently the most credible is the impact of an object the size of Mars, that is, 1/2 of Earth, the planet was called Theia, it is believed that This planet orbited close to Earth's orbit and due to gravity, they progressively got closer until they collided. Theia was a rocky planet like Earth and could harbor life, as there are several variants of this theory, it hit the Earth in a oblique angle that changed the axis of rotation to its current 23.6°, thanks to this oblique angle the Moon was formed because if the angle of the shock were 90° it would have formed a system of rings that would soon be absorbed, but it launched it at an acceptable distance to form moons and within a day the Moon would form.
Family
George Darwin married Martha (Maud) du Puy, daughter of Charles du Puy, a native of Philadelphia, in 1884, with whom he had five children:
- Gwendoline (Gwen) Mary (1885−1957), artist and author
- Charles Galton (1887−1962), physical and mathematical
- Margaret Elizabeth (1890−1974), married to Sir Geoffrey Keynes (1887−1982)
- William Robert (1894−1970)
- Leonard Darwin (1899–1899)