Jose Comas y Solá

José Comas Solá (Barcelona, December 17, 1868 - ibid., December 2, 1937) was a Spanish astronomer.

Youth work

He has always shown a great predilection for scientific studies. He was 15 years old when he studied a meteorite that fell near Tarragona, publishing the result of his search in the Astronomie magazine. He too, as a young man, did some work on a lunar eclipse and the meteoric swarm of the Andromedides in November 1885.

In 1886 he began his studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Barcelona, until he obtained a degree, and immediately after finishing his degree he began his astronomical research.

In 1890 he began his observations of Mars with a 108 mm Bardou telescope, the result of which was the preparation of a map of this planet, which he presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts in his hometown. With this small telescope he also studied Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun.

It should be noted that Comas opposed the current led by the American astronomer Percival Lowell who proposed the existence of channels that crossed the surface of the planet Mars.

He was an astronomer at the Observatori Català of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Gerona) from 1895 to 1897, making a study trip to Italy and Sicily two years later, visiting the main observatories and volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna.

Solar eclipses of 1900 and 1905

The Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona commissioned him to organize a mission in Elche to study the solar eclipse of May 28, 1900. He was a promoter of photography and film applied to astronomy. Taking advantage of the solar eclipse of 1905, a mission from the Fabra Observatory traveled to Vinaroz (Castellón) to observe the phenomenon. Comas used a Gaumont cinematograph and adapting the prism of the spectrograph, he recorded on film, for the first time in the world, the spectrum of the solar chromosphere.

He determined the diameter of Mercury by observing its transit in front of the Sun in 1907 and 1909.

Observing Jupiter and Saturn

At the beginning of the XX century, he focused his attention on the planet Jupiter, his many planetary observations allowed him to discover the interaction between the South Temperate Band (STB) and the Great Red Spot (RS). Observing his satellites, he came to resolve their disks and detect albedo details in them, detecting a lighter area on Ganymede, which he mistakenly interpreted as a polar cap.

Regarding Saturn, the observations of this planet were continued by Comas and Solá from 1890 to 1937. Among the most important results we can mention their theory of the luminous variations of the ring as a function of the difference in azimuths, in relation to its plane, of the Sun and of the Earth; the discovery of the rotation period of Barnard's white spot (1902), and the differential rotation (the equator rotates faster than the pole) of Saturn's atmosphere (1903).

Titan's atmosphere

Separate mention are the observations of Titan in 1907, which demonstrated the existence of an atmosphere on this satellite. Comas Solà was able to observe a property of planetary atmospheres called "limb darkening" (darkening of the limbus). The light scattered and reflected by the limb has a longer path through the atmosphere, thus being more attenuated than the radiation scattered by the rest of the disk. The limb darkening effect of Titan and therefore the existence of an atmosphere on Saturn's largest satellite could only be confirmed in 1944 by Gerard Kuiper, who corroborated it spectroscopically by finding methane. These works were published in the prestigious journal Astronomische Nachrichten. 179 (4290). p. 289-290. (1908).

Comas regularly observed and photographed the return of Halley's Comet in 1910, studying its activity, changes in its tail structure, and gaseous eruptions.

After analyzing the directions and radiant of the meteors in the shower on October 9, 1915, he deduced that they came from the comet Giacobini-Zinner, giving the shower the name Giacobinidas.

Asteroids

He also stood out for his studies of asteroids, devising a photographic procedure to recognize them, thus discovering eleven of them, the first in 1920, which are: (804) Hispania, (925) Alphonsina in honor of Alfonso X the Wise, (945) Barcelona asteroid peculiar for its great inclination of the plane of the orbit, (986) Amelia dedicated to his second wife, Amelia Sala, (1102) Pepita, (1117) Reginita, (1136) Mercedes, (1188) Gothlandia, (1626) Sadeya, (1655) Comas Solá and (1708) Polit.

He also developed a new method for calculating the orbits of these stars. He was able to provide the orbital elements (which accurately determine the orbit of the asteroid) for 8 of the stars. The other 3 could not be rediscovered until later, 1927AA was observed in 1960 by the Cincinnati Observatory and later renamed SADEYA, leaving two unnamed, (A1929SHA and 1929WG) when Comas died before they could be rediscovered.

Comas rediscovered (193) Ambrosia (which had not been heard from since its discovery 37 years before) and (629) Bernardina and provided many measurements that allowed the exact orbits of other asteroids to be determined.

Currently, an asteroid is not discovered by the first to observe it, but by the one who contributes more observations for the exact determination of its orbit (in order to allow its monitoring and study). Asteroids with a known orbit are given a sequential ordinal and the name given by their discoverer; at the beginning of the century they were named with women's names. Asteroids without fully confirmed orbit are designated with the year of their discovery and two letters that act as ordinals.

Periodic comet 32P/Comas Solà

Studies on comets are also owed to him, discovering in 1925 almost simultaneously with the astronomer Schain, the so-called Schain-Comas Solá (C/1925 F) of hyperbolic orbit, passing through perihelion on September 6, 1925; and in 1926 a second comet: On November 4, 1926, Comas found a periodic comet that with an elliptical orbit approaches Earth every 8.83 years. Initially called 1927f (the sixth comet found that year), it was named after its discoverer once its orbit was confirmed.

The orbits that these stars follow within our solar system are defined by a series of parameters called orbital elements. With these appropriate parameters and algorithms, the position of the star can be determined at any time in the past or future (astronomical ephemeris).

Astrometry and double stars

On the photographic side, Comas prepared an atlas of 43 wide-field photographs entitled Photographic Atlas of the Ecliptic Zone, considered the first photographic atlas of this area of the sky; He also practiced stereoscopic photography, developing techniques that allowed him to obtain highly precise astrometry (measurements of the position of the stars) and discover a couple of variable stars, among which we must highlight a Cepheid-type variable in the constellation Libra and another in Orion. He made micrometer measurements of about 200 double stars and discovered the double star SOL 1.

In the field of seismology, he is owed a complete seismological statistics, the result of his observations made at the Fabra Observatory and at his own seismological station since 1913, as well as a portion of studies and works, among which we mention the "Calculation of the hypocentral depth of earthquakes", a procedure devised by him to determine this depth simply using the data of a single seismogram and thus eliminating the inevitable time discrepancies that influence hodograph methods so much.

Original contributions

In the 1933 edition of his work 'Astronomía', Labor, page 197, Josep Comas i Solá states: 'The author of this book believes he has proven that the interpretation of radial velocity due to the shift of the spectrum towards the red is wrong, and that this shift is due not precisely to a radial velocity, but to the decrease in the wave frequency of the radiations coming from those very remote nebulae, as a consequence, at least, of the mutual collisions of some rays with others that occurred during such a formidable trip, shocks that would result in the expulsion of photons or elements of radiation, with the consequent decrease in wave frequency. Hence, for those very distant nebulae, the redshift, a shift that, according to the theory, would be substantially proportional to the distance, and therefore negligible for relatively close stars'. This is a phenomenon similar to that published in 1934 in: Physical Review, by G Breit and J A Wheeler and known as the 'Breit-Wheeler Process'. The concept is similar to what was called Luz cansada, 'Tired light'. He also proposes (Page 92 op.cit.), that the great emission of light from the stars: 'Nova', is due to the rapid heating of a large mass of gases placed in contact with an already existing star, for example, when a star enters a cloud of nebulous gas, in the course of the orbit of the star.

Your role in society

He was director of the Fabra Observatory from its creation in 1904 until his death in 1937, when he was replaced by Isidro Pólit.

In 1911 he founded the Astronomical Society of Spain (later called the Astronomical Society of Spain and America, Sadeya) with Alberto Carsí, and it was promoted by Manuel Olió, of which he was named president, a position he held until his death. This society was created in clear antagonism with Salvador Raurich and Eduard Fontserè, who had created the Barcelona Astronomical Society a year earlier (1910), coinciding with the passage of Halley's Comet. The two scientists thus brought their scientific and personal rivalry to the associative plan, but it is worth saying that at least this fact allowed the extension and dissemination of Astronomy to many people. He was also director of the Generalitat's Astronomy Service and an honorary member of numerous European Astronomical Societies.

Villa Urania, in 2008.

Many of his observations were made from his own observatory at "Villa Urania". When he died on December 2, 1937 from bronchopneumonia, he bequeathed his house, Villa Urania, and his land and valuable astronomical apparatus to the city of Barcelona. Due to his popularity, his funeral was one of the most massive ever seen in Barcelona. But it may be the countless guided visits to the Fabra and the Villa Urania observatory that did the most to disseminate and bring astronomy closer to the people of Barcelona.

Memorial Plate in Villa Urania in 2008.

Also part of the Comas y Solá legacy is the complete collection of articles by Comas y Solá published by the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona and donated by Francisco Almor to Aster, the Barcelona Astronomical Association.

He was also a member of the Academy of Nations, an international organization chaired by Dr. Arvid Reuterdahl, and with highly distinguished members such as Robert T. Browne Secretary General and author of The Mystery of Space, Hudson Maxim, J. G. A. Goedhart, Sten Lothigius, Stjepan Mohorovicic among other eminences of the time.

Its dissemination role

Comas y Solá had an important facet as a journalist and scientific popularizer, leaving an enormous volume of scientific literature and astronomical dissemination works. In 1893 he began to write a fortnightly column on astronomy in the newspaper La Vanguardia, an activity that was not interrupted until his death in 1937.

Among his dissemination works, his work Astronomy (1935) stands out and his works are frequently cited: Heaven, Halley's Comet, Spiritism Before Science (a skeptical look at the flourishing spiritist fashion of the turn of the century), Elementary theory of airplane lift, Scientific Philosophy Essays, Seismological Statistics of Catalonia and Seismological Geography of Catalonia showing the different scientific fields that interested Comas and Solá. He also published more than 600 articles in the newspaper La Vanguardia.

In memory of his contribution to Astronomy, the English selenographer H.P. Wilkins gave his name to a crater 65 km in diameter that is located south of Cordillera Montes, and west of Lagrange crater; to the southwest of the visible face of the Moon, very close to the limb of our satellite In 1973 the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the organization responsible, among other things, for giving the names of officials to stars and their geographical details, reformed the nomenclator of the Luna losing Comas Solà its crater to gain one on Mars. The Comas Solà crater on Mars is a crater 132 km in diameter, located 19° 54′ 0″ S, 158° 30′ 0″ W

Remembering his figure, the journalist Álvaro Soto made the radio documentary “Josep Comas Solà, a space watcher” for Radio Nacional de España. Antoni Roca-Rosell and Pedro Ruiz-Castell (professors of History of Science) and the current director of the Fabra Observatory and professor of Quantum Physics and Astrophysics, Jorge Núñez.

Books

• Heaven. Newly illustrated astronomy (1929) Casa Editorial Seguí
• Astronomy (1932) Calpe, Barcelona. Work in two volumes.
• Astronomy (1933), Labor, Barcelona. 3rd edition.
• Astronomy (1935) Editorial Ramón Sopena, S.A.Edition illustrated with 298 prints and 3 maps.
• Astronomy (1952) Editorial Labor, S.A. ISBN 84-335-5201-5
• Astronomy (1970) Editorial Ramón Sopena, S.A. ISBN 84-303-0169-0
• Astronomy (1973) Editorial Ramón Sopena, S.A. ISBN 84-303-0169-0 (Reissued 1970)
• Astronomy. (Tomo 1) Spass-Calpe, S.A. ISBN 84-239-6722-0
• Astronomy. (Tomo 2) Spass-Calpe, S.A. ISBN 84-239-6723-9
• Spiritism to Science: Critical Study on Mediumship (1986) High Fulla Editorial, ISBN 84-86556-10-4
• Josep Comas i Solà, astronomy and divultor (Barcelona, 2004, ISBN 84-7609-432-9)