Appendix: The Rise of Astrophysics in Western
Countries
Astrophysics was born in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and developed in
Western countries in the broad fields of stellar spectroscopy, stellar structure, and
galactic astronomy (Kogure 2015). The rise of astrophysics had no impact on Japan
in the Tokugawa period, as seen in Chap. 1. Its importance was barely recognized
even in the early twentieth century, but advances in the field spurred interest among
Japanese scientists, and it started to be studied in Japan at a deep level as well. As a
reference, this appendix presents a brief overview of the early history of Western
astrophysics.
Development of Spectroscopy
Astronomical spectroscopy was initiated with an experiment by Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787–1826) in Munich in 1814, who found numerous dark lines across the
bright solar spectrum (Fraunhofer lines) (Fig. A.1).
Chemical identification of the Fraunhofer lines was made in 1859 by Gustav
Robert Kirchhoff (1824–1887) at Heidelberg University. Kirchhoff showed that
sodium, calcium, iron, and other elements exist in the solar atmosphere.
William Huggins (1824–1910) and William Allen Miller (1817–1870) of London
took up spectroscopic observations of several stars at Huggins’s private Tulse Hill
Observatory, and they found that the chemical compositions varied markedly from
star to star. Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) of the Vatican Observatory began to classify
stars into five types by color and spectral features. He classified over 4000 stars over
the course of his life, and his classification was revised by Hermann Vogel (1841–
1907) into seven types.
In the USA, John William Draper (1811–1882) and his son Henry Draper (1837–
1882), both enthusiastic amateur astronomers, contributed to the photographic
observation of the Sun, stars, and nebulae. In 1843, John William Draper found
numerous new Fraunhofer lines in the ultraviolet and infrared regions on
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
T. Kogure, The History of Modern Astronomy in Japan, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57061-3
263
Countries
Astrophysics was born in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and developed in
Western countries in the broad fields of stellar spectroscopy, stellar structure, and
galactic astronomy (Kogure 2015). The rise of astrophysics had no impact on Japan
in the Tokugawa period, as seen in Chap. 1. Its importance was barely recognized
even in the early twentieth century, but advances in the field spurred interest among
Japanese scientists, and it started to be studied in Japan at a deep level as well. As a
reference, this appendix presents a brief overview of the early history of Western
astrophysics.
Development of Spectroscopy
Astronomical spectroscopy was initiated with an experiment by Joseph von Fraunhofer (1787–1826) in Munich in 1814, who found numerous dark lines across the
bright solar spectrum (Fraunhofer lines) (Fig. A.1).
Chemical identification of the Fraunhofer lines was made in 1859 by Gustav
Robert Kirchhoff (1824–1887) at Heidelberg University. Kirchhoff showed that
sodium, calcium, iron, and other elements exist in the solar atmosphere.
William Huggins (1824–1910) and William Allen Miller (1817–1870) of London
took up spectroscopic observations of several stars at Huggins’s private Tulse Hill
Observatory, and they found that the chemical compositions varied markedly from
star to star. Angelo Secchi (1818–1878) of the Vatican Observatory began to classify
stars into five types by color and spectral features. He classified over 4000 stars over
the course of his life, and his classification was revised by Hermann Vogel (1841–
1907) into seven types.
In the USA, John William Draper (1811–1882) and his son Henry Draper (1837–
1882), both enthusiastic amateur astronomers, contributed to the photographic
observation of the Sun, stars, and nebulae. In 1843, John William Draper found
numerous new Fraunhofer lines in the ultraviolet and infrared regions on
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
T. Kogure, The History of Modern Astronomy in Japan, Historical & Cultural
Astronomy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57061-3
263