Camille Flammarion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Camille Flammarion (February 26, 1842 – June 3, 1925) was a French astronomer and author. His full name is sometimes (rarely) given as Nicolas Camille Flammarion.
He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, as well as several notable early science fiction novels. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie. He maintained a private observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge, France.
He was a founder and the first president of the Société Astronomique de France.
He was the first to suggest the names Triton and Amalthea for moons of Neptune and Jupiter, respectively, although these names were not officially adopted until many decades later.
His second wife was Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion. Despite his scientific background, or perhaps even because of it, he had an interest in spiritualism and reincarnation. This influenced some of his science fiction. Other than that his writing about other worlds adhered fairly closely to then current ideas in evolutionary theory and astronomy. He was chosen to speak at the funerals of Allan Kardec, founder of Spiritism.
The enigmatic "Flammarion Woodcut" first appeared in an 1888 Flammarion publication.
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[edit] Bibliography
- La pluralité des mondes habités (The Plurality of Inhabited Worlds), 1862.
- Real and Imaginary Worlds, 1864.
- Lumen, 1867.
- Récits de l'infini, 1872.
- L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire, 1888.
- Astronomie populaire, 1880. His best-selling work, it was translated into English as Popular Astronomy in 1894.
- Uranie, 1890.
- La planète Mars et ses conditions d'habitabilité, 1892.
- La Fin du Monde (The End of the World), 1893, is a science fiction novel about a comet colliding with the Earth, followed by several million years leading up to the gradual death of the planet. It has recently been brought back into print as Omega: The Last Days of the World.
- Death and Its Mystery, 1921, 3 volumes.
[edit] Honors
Named after him
- Flammarion crater on the Moon.
- Flammarion crater on Mars.
[edit] Quotes
"What intelligent being, what being capable of responding emotionally to a beautiful sight, can look at the jagged, silvery lunar crescent trembling in the azure sky, even through the weakest of telescopes, and not be struck by it in an intensely pleasurable way, not feel cut off from everyday life here on earth and transported toward that first stop on the celestial journeys? What thoughtful soul could look at brilliant Jupiter with its four attendant satellites, or splendid Saturn encircled by its mysterious ring, or a double star glowing scarlet and sapphire in the infinity of night, and not be filled with a sense of wonder? Yes, indeed, if humankind - from humble farmers in the fields and toiling workers in the cities to teachers, people of independent means, those who have reached the pinnacle of fame or fortune, even the most frivolous of society women - if they knew what profound inner pleasure await those who gaze at the heavens, then France, nay, the whole of Europe, would be covered with telescopes instead of bayonets, thereby promoting universal happiness and peace."
- Camille Flammarion, French astronomer, 1880
