Biographies

Author: Monika Rap

For ages in a crowd of average people, there were also men who have the courage to have higher aspirations than the rest. Seized with passion of discovering, they were looking in the sky to find answers for various questions. They left the exploration of new lands for travelers and they concentrated on discovering the universe.

It is impossible to mention all the hotheads of Astronomy, but in this place I would like to describe some Polish well-known astronomers.

kopernik.jpg Traditionally, I should start from Nicolaus Copernicus (pl. Mikołaj Kopernik), (2.19.1473 - 5.24.1543), the creator of a heliocentric Solar System, in which the Sun takes place in the center and the planets (with Earth) run around it. He published his theory in 1543 in a book called "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres". Although he dedicated this to the pope, the book was definitely criticized by the Church and in 1616 it was even banned. The theory of Copernicus has changed the way of thinking about the place of Earth and humans in the Universe. It also became the basis of modern sciences. The theory was proved by Galileo with his own hands made telescope. The thesis is called Copernican Revolution.

Copernicus is also a creator of the cosmological principle. It states: On large spatial scales, the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic. The astronomer was also a mathematic, doctor, lawyer and economist. He published his works on monetary reforms. His name is given to different satellites, institutions and cosmic objects. Here are some examples:

  • A big crater on the Moon (107 km in diameter)
  • A big crater on the Mars (292 km in diameter)
  • A planetoid nr 1322 (orbit 1.86 - 2.99, time of revolution 3.77 years)
  • OAO-3 Copernicus (1972-065A) – an American satellite to observe in x-rays and ultra-violet rays, it was active in years 1972-1980
  • Kopernik 500 (Interkosmos 9; 1973-022A) – Soviet-Polish satellite to research the Sun rays and ionosphere, it was active in 1973.
  • Mikołaj Kopernik’s University in Toruń (Poland)
  • Astronomic Center in honor of Mikołaj Kopernik of Polish Academy of Science (CAMK)
  • In Toruń there is the Copernicus' House, which currently is a museum of the astronomer.

Undoubtedly, the Polish helped much the astronomy to develop. To pay tribute to them, so many cosmic objects are called with their names:

  • For Hercules Dembowski – one crater on the Moon and planetoid 349 Dembowska
  • For Wiśniewski – the planetoid discovered in 1960 – 2256 Wiśniewski
  • The comet discovered by Konrad Rudnicki - 1966 T1 Rudnicki
  • In 1961 Kazimierz Kortylewski discovered dusty clouds of Earth (Kordylewki’s clouds) laid in spots of the Earth-Moon system.
  • For Jan Śniadecki – one of planetoids – 1262 Sniadeckia
  • Crater Dziewulski on the Moon for Władysław Dziewulski
  • For Stanisław Lubieniecki – Crater Lubieniezky on the Moon
  • For Tadeusz Banachiewicz - Crater Banachiewicz on the Moon and the planetoid 1286 Banachiewicz
  • The name of Jan Gadomski was given to a crater on the backside of the Moon.
  • Grzegorz Pojmański discovered two comets. One of them is called 2006 A1 Pojmanski.

But we should remember that the biggest development of the astronomy took place in 20. century, especially after the first satellites were sent to the sky. Since the 90ies, Poland has got important successes in this branch of knowledge. The two most significant people are Bohdan Paczyński and Aleksander Wolszczan.

First of them, professor Bohdan Paczyński (born on 8th February 1940 in Vilnius, died on 19th April 2007 in Princeton), conferred a doctor’s degree in the University of Warsaw, last time he was a professor in Princeton University. In his examination he took up mainly the star evolution theory, accretion discs and flashes of cosmic rays with big energy. In the 70ies of 20. century he found Astronomic Center in honor of Mikołaj Kopernik in Warsaw. In the 80ies he invented a revolutionary method of finding small and dark objects called grativational microlensing. It made a possibility to discover the first extrasolar planets. We cannot find them by the traditional methods, because they light of the star is enormously bright. The microlensing was used by Polish OGLE team to search the dark matter. In 1999, Paczyński was awarded with Gold Medal of Royal Astronomical Society, in 2002, favoured by Bruce Medal and in 2006 he got Henry Norris Russell Lectureship – the highest award of American Astronomical Society. He was probably the most important Polish candidate to the Nobel's Prize in physic. In 2005 he was one of the discoverers of the planet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. In June 2005, he got the doctor's honoris causa degree in the University of Wrocław (Poland) and in September 2006, in the Mikołaj Kopernik’s University in Toruń.

The next important Polish astronomer is Aleksander Wolszczan (born on 29th April 1946 in Szczecinek). He is famous of discovering the first extrasolar planets. He graduated from the Mikołaj Kopernik's University in Toruń. In 1973, he participated in special courses on the Maks Planck's Institiute in Bonn (West Germany). In 1975, he gained the doctor's degree in physic for his explorations of devoted pulsars. He has not lived in Poland since 1982. In September 1991, he discovered the first three extrasolar planet with the radiotelescope in Arecibo (Puerto Rico). They are running around the pulsar PSR B1257+12. This discovery was officially published in Atlanta during the congress of American Astronomical Society in January 1992. Later it was published in the scientist magazine "Nature" on 9th January 1992. The discovery allowed him to gain the Award of Foundation for Polish Science. Since 1992, he has been working as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics in the Penn State University. On 22nd March 1994, he published the full results of his discovery in "Science". He was favoured by the magazine "Nature" as the author of one of the 15 most significant discoveries in physics. In 1996, he gained Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize from American Astronomical Society. In February 2005, he claimed on congress in Aspen in Colorado, that together with Maciej Konacki he discovered another planet in the first extrasolar planetary system.

Maciej Konacki (born in 1972 in Toruń) is a doctor of astronomy and Polish astrophysicist. He reached his doctor's degree in 2000 in Mikołaj Kopernik's University in Toruń. Between 1997 and1999 he was the scientist on the Pennsylvania State University. Since 2000 he has been working in California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as "senior postdoc". On 14th July in 2005 as the first astronomer, he found the first planet running in threefold star system. It was named HD 188753 Ab. It is located 149 light-years from Earth. It is about 14% bigger than Jupiter and the temperature is about 720 Celsius degree. Maciej Konacki's discoveries made the existing theories concerning the planet creation process deprecated, because they thought such a system is unstable to form a planet.

Wiesław Wiśniewski (born on 2nd May 1931, died on 28th February 1994 in Tucson, USA) was a well-known Polish astronomer. After his studies in the University of Poznań (1949-1952), he worked in the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (1953-1963 and 1967-1972). He created there a new Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University. He participated in the Polish international scientific expedition to Spitsbergen, where he spent almost 2 years measuring for examples: the radioactive atmosphere pollution, the Sun shining and aurora borealis (1957-1959). He also worked for Lunar and Planetary Laboratory w Tucson in Arizona, USA (1963-1967 and since 1972 to his death). He was one of pioneers to use the new methods and exploration techniques. In 1976, he made the first measurement of the core rotation of comet P/Arrest. In June 1993, he noticed that the core of early-discovered comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 consists of a chain of many multicoloured blocks. The photography made by him became famous all over the world. He was the author of more than 120 publications about astronomy.

Prof. Paweł M. Konrad Rudnicki (born on 2nd July 1926 in Warsaw) is one of the most respected polish astronomers. He is also an ecclesiastic and a professor of astronomy and theology. Since September 1945 he had been studying the astronomy in the Univesity of Warsaw, where he worked as a scientist for many years. In 1965, during his stay in American Mt. Palomar Observatory, he discovered a new comet registered it on a plate. It was the first comet discovered by the Polish after the second world war. It was named 1966 T1 Rudnicki. The main fascinations of professor Rudnicki fascinates as an astronomer are galaxies, cosmology and the astronomical methodology.

These biographies show that the people who made significant discoveries, were above all patient. They reached their knowledge step by step and proved that the dreams may come true only if we want to.