File:JeremiahHorrocks.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Born
- 1618, Lower Lodge, Otterspool, Toxteth Park , Liverpool , Lancashire , England
- Died
- 3 January 1641 (aged 22), Toxteth Park, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
- Alma mater
- University of Cambridge
- Known for
- Transit of Venus , Tides , Elliptical orbit , Lunar orbit
- Fields
- Astronomy , Mathematics , Mechanics
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Jeremiah
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- Toxteth
- Place of death
- Toxteth
- Occupation
- translator
- Educated at
- Emmanuel College
- Languages spoken
- Latin
- Religion
- Protestantism
- Field of work
- Christian Church
- Image
- JeremiahHorrocks.jpg
- Work location
- England
Show 6 more facts
- Commons category
- Jeremiah Horrocks
- date of birth
- 1617-00-00
- date of death
- 1641-01-03
- name in native language
- Jeremiah Horrocks
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- partner in business or sport
- William Crabtree
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~13 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Jeremiah Horrocks (1618 – 3 January 1641), sometimes given as Jeremiah Horrox (the Latinised version that he used on the Emmanuel College register and in his Latin manuscripts), was an English astronomer. He was the first person to demonstrate that the Moon moved around the Earth in an elliptical orbit; and he was the only person to predict the transit of Venus of 1639, an event which he and his friend William Crabtree were the only two people to observe and record. Most remarkably, Horrocks correctly asserted that Jupiter was accelerating in its orbit while Saturn was slowing and interpreted this as due to mutual gravitational interaction, thereby demonstrating that gravity's actions were not limited to the Earth, Sun, and Moon.
His early death and the chaos of the English Civil War nearly caused the loss to science of his treatise on the transit, Venus in sole visa; but for this and his other work he is acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of British astronomy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jeremiah Horrocks” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.