Pierre Méchain
Pierre Méchain was a renowned French astronomer who
was recognized for his in-depth work on deep sky objects, comets, and aided the
establishment of the meter. Pierre Méchain was born on August 16, 1744 in Laon,
France to parents Pierre-Francois Méchain and Mari-Marguerite Roze. He was
married to Barbe-Therese Marjou and had two sons and one daughter.
From a young age, Méchain demonstrated great skill
for math and physics but was forced to leave his college education due to
financial difficulties. His advancements
in the scientific world however were not detained, Méchain worked with figures
like Jerome de Lalande. This aided Méchain’s advance in the world of astronomy
later on.
Méchain’s astronomical career began with his job as
a calculator with the Depot of the Navy. He surveyed France’s coastline and
observed an occultation of Alderbaran by the Moon. Later on, he presented his
observations to the Academy of Sciences. From then on, Méchain became devoted to
the art of comet observation and hunting. He discovered eight new original
comets and co-discovered an additional three. The span of these discoveries was
covered from 1781 to 1801. Méchain not only devoted his time to comets but deep
sky objects as well. From 1779 to 1782, Méchain discovered thirty of these
objects, of which twenty-six were original firsts. At the time, Méchain was
close friends with Charles Messier, a fellow astronomer who added the
discoveries to his catalog of Nebular and Star Clusters. Besides simply
discovering the comets, Méchain with his mathematical gift, calculated the
orbits. He went on to calculate orbits of comets discovered in previous
centuries, helping him disprove that they were the same object. He went on to win
the “Grand Prix” of 1782 of the Academy of Sciences. Méchain also helped revolutionized the metric
system. In 1792, while working on maps, he was determined to measure the
meridian arc from Dunkirk to Barcelona. This lasted uo to 1798 where there was
finally a basis for the unit of length in the metric system: the meter.
Pierre Méchain died on the twentieth of September in
1804 in Castellon de la Plana, Spain. He will always be remembered as an
important figure in the astronomy community. In June of 20013, Asteroid 21785
was named in his honour.
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