Today is the birthday of
Asaph Hall, a post-Civil War astronomer who is best-known for his discoveries of
Phobos and Deimos, the two tiny moons of Mars. Phobos and Deimos are
non-spherical bodies, measuring only 16 x 12 miles and 10 x 6 miles,
respectively.
Given Asaph Hall's incomplete education, his Martian
discoveries were a considerable accomplishment. Hall is also remembered for naming
a-six mile wide crater on Phobos after his first wife, Chloe Angeline
Stickney Hall, a mathematician who had once been Asaph Hall's professor.
We Don't Need No
Education
Ideally, this track would have come from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon instead of The Wall, but "We Don't Need No
Education" still works here. One of the most remarkable aspects of Asaph Hall's
career is his lack of education.
Apprenticed to a carpenter at age 16, he split his time
between working and studying at a variety of schools as a non-matriculated
student. Hall studied mathematics at Norfolk
Academy for one winter, spent 18
months at Central College studying astronomy, and then studied for
three months at the University
of Michigan under the
special instruction of F. F. E. Brünnow. After a short stint
as a schoolmaster in Ohio,
Hall was able to secure a position at the Harvard Observatory.
Making the Most of an
Opportunity
 Asaph
Hall used his opportunity to work at the Harvard Observatory as a chance to
attend lectures and, informally at least, to complete his education. His reputed
brilliance as a heavenly observer was immediate. He began sending papers, most
often on the orbits of asteroids and comments, to scientific journals in 1856.
By the time of his death some 51 years later, Hall had nearly 500 published
papers.
In 1862, Asaph Hall was appointed an
aide at the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) in Washington, D.C. A year later, he was named to a position
as a mathematics instructor. Promoted to chief of the USNO in 1872, he discovered
the existence of Mars's two moons in 1877. Asaph Hall's discovery contradicted many
established scientific works which claimed that the red planet was without
satellites.
Recognition and Later
Life
Asaph Hall received numerous awards
and recognitions, both nationally and internationally, for his work. Given his disdain
for textbooks, perhaps from a lack of formal education, he refused to write a
book and concentrated on his scientific papers instead.
After retiring from the Naval
Observatory in 1891, Hall accepted a position teaching and working in astronomy
at Harvard. Eleven years later, in 1902, he was elected president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Asaph Hall published his final paper in
September of 1906. He died a year later, on November 22, 1907, at the age of
78.
Resources:
"Asaph Hall." Encyclopedia
of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998.
Reproduced in Biography
Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
"Asaph Hall."Dictionary
of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies,
1928-1936.
Reproduced in Biography
Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
http://www.ozgate.com/infobytes/mars_moons.htm
http://maia.usno.navy.mil/women_history/hall.html
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