Edmond Halley - Biography and career, Hollow Earth, Named after Halley

Astronomer and mathematician, born in London, UK. He studied at Oxford, but left without taking a degree to undertake cataloguing the stars of the S hemisphere. He published his catalogue in 1687 and was elected a member of the Royal Society, as well as receiving his degree after intercession by the king. He then began a study of planetary orbits, and correctly predicted the return in 1758 of the comet now named after him. He published studies on magnetic variations (1683), trade winds and monsoons (1686), and sea-charts of magnetic variation (1701). He encouraged Isaac Newton to write his celebrated Principia (1687), and paid for the publication out of his own pocket. With his Breslau Table of Mortality (1693), he laid the actuarial foundations for life insurance and annuities. In 1720 he became astronomer-royal.

Edmond Halley FRS (sometimes "Edmund", November 8, 1656 – January 14, 1742) was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist.

Biography and career

Halley was born at Haggerston, London, the son of a wealthy soapboiler.

On leaving Oxford, in 1676, he visited the south Atlantic island of St. Helena with the intention of studying stars from the Southern Hemisphere.

In 1686 Halley published the second part of his expedition, being a paper and chart on trade winds and monsoons.

Halley married in 1682 and settled in Islington. Halley convinced him to write the Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis (1687), which was published at Halley's expense.

In 1693 he published an article on life annuities, which featured an analysis of age-at-death taken from the records of Breslau, a Polish-German town known for keeping meticulous records. Halley's work strongly influenced the development of actuarial science.

In 1690 he completed plans for a diving bell, an apparatus capable of remaining submerged for extended periods of time, and fitted with a window for the purpose of undersea exploration. In Halley's diving bell, atmosphere is replenished by sending weighted barrels of air down from the surface.

In 1698 he received a commission as captain of HMS Paramore to make extensive observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism.

In November 1703 he was appointed Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford University, and received an honorary degree of doctor of laws in 1710. In 1705, applying historical astronomy methods, he published Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae, which stated his belief that the comet sightings of 1456, 1531, 1607, and 1682 related to the same comet, which he predicted would return in 1758. When it did it became generally known as Halley's Comet.

In 1716 Halley suggested a high-precision measurement of the distance between the Earth and the Sun by timing the transit of Venus.

In 1720, Halley succeeded John Flamsteed as Astronomer Royal, a position which he held until his death.

Hollow Earth

In 1692 (Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society of London), Halley put forth the idea of a hollow Earth consisting of a shell about 500 miles (800 km) thick, two inner concentric shells and an innermost core, about the diameters of the planets Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Halley proposed this scheme in order to explain anomalous compass readings.

Named after Halley

Halley's Comet — Halley predicted the comet's return. Halley crater on Mars Halley crater on the Moon Halley Research Station, Antarctica

An alternative (and incorrect) pronunciation of Halley's surname, to rhyme with "Bailey", has led to rock and roll singer Bill Haley punningly calling his backing band "His Comets" after Halley's Comet.

Preceded by: John Flamsteed

Astronomer Royal 1720–1742

Succeeded by: James Bradley