IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB752540761

Francis G. Pease and the first galactic rotation curves (1916-1922) (2018)

Marché, Jordan D., II (Author)
Weber, Benjamin M. (Author)

Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Volume: 21
Issue: 2-3
Pages: 226-236

URI: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018JAHH...21..226M

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Controversies and disputes Astrophysics Celestial mechanics Applied mathematics Dark matter Galaxies; nebulae 20th century, early Mount Wilson Observatory

With the 60-inch reflector at Mount Wilson Observatory, Francis G. Pease obtained the first measurements of the rotation curves of two nearly edge-on spiral galaxies, NGC 4594 (the Sombrero Galaxy) and NGC 224 (the Andromeda Galaxy) in 1916 and 1918, respectively. Pease aligned the spectrograph's slit with the major axes of the galaxies' foreshortened elliptical figures and obtained direct measurements of the Doppler-induced radial velocity components along their axes. This technique originally had been applied in 1895 by James E. Keeler to a rotational analysis of the rings of Saturn. By subtracting out the radial velocities of their centers, Pease obtained their rotational velocities as a function of distance away from the centers. This enabled him to determine that linear relationships existed in both cases, whereby these objects appeared to show evidence of solid-body rotations out to (and beyond) the limits that could be observed spectroscopically (about 2.5 arcminutes from their centers). These relationships contradicted the behaviors of planets that orbited our Sun, and indicated that the objects' mass distributions likewise increased in direct proportion away from the centers. Pease's dynamical results were applied in two independent cases (by Ernst J. Öpik and Knut Lundmark) to a greater understanding of the distance and nature of the 'spiral nebulae' in the aftermath of the 'Great Debate'. Yet, the remaining questions posed by Pease's data were not effectively answered for two decades (or more) until Horace W. Babcock extended spectroscopic investigations into the disk region of the Andromeda Galaxy and showed that those stellar velocities were largely independent of their distances from the center. Along with many other examples, this finding was later confirmed by Vera Rubin and her colleagues and has become one of the leading forms of evidence for the existence of dark matter in galaxies.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB752540761/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Smith, Robert W.; (2009)
Beyond the Galaxy: The Development of Extragalactic Astronomy 1885--1965, Part 2 (/isis/citation/CBB000930146/)

Article DeVorkin, David H.; (2000)
Quantum Physics and the Stars (V): Physicists at Mount Wilson Prior to 1922 (/isis/citation/CBB000671369/)

Article Wang, Da-ming; Gao, Wen-jie; (2008)
George Ellery Hale, Father of Astrophysics and Pioneer of Big Science (/isis/citation/CBB000952295/)

Article Helge Kragh; (2017)
Is the Universe expanding? Fritz Zwicky and the early tired-light hypothesis (/isis/citation/CBB261331348/)

Article Ruiz-Castell, Pedro; Suay-Matallana, Ignacio; Bonet Safont, Juan Marcos; (2013)
El cometa de Halley y la imagen pública de la astronomía en la prensa diaria española de principios del siglo XX (/isis/citation/CBB001320249/)

Thesis Heather Stephanie Crandall; (2018)
The Expansion of a Legacy: Astronomy's Great Debate on the Size of the Universe (/isis/citation/CBB200504751/)

Article Vanderburgh, William L.; (2014)
Putting a New Spin on Galaxies: Horace W. Babcock, the Andromeda Nebula, and the Dark Matter Revolution (/isis/citation/CBB001451068/)

Article Stacy S. McGaugh; (2021)
Testing galaxy formation and dark matter with low surface brightness galaxies (/isis/citation/CBB252079615/)

Article Philip Yock; (2023)
Japan/NZ Collaborations on Cosmic Rays, Exoplanets and Dark Matter, and Hypothetical Queries by Isaac Newton (/isis/citation/CBB722498267/)

Article Steinicke, W.; (2012)
The M51 Mystery: Lord Rosse, Robinson, South and the Discovery of Spiral Structure in 1845 (/isis/citation/CBB001221499/)

Article Osterbrock, Donald E.; (2001)
Herman Zanstra, Donald H. Menzel, and the Zanstra Method of Nebular Astrophysics (/isis/citation/CBB000100077/)

Article Smith, Robert W.; (2008)
Beyond the Galaxy: The Development of Extragalactic Astronomy, 1885--1965, Part 1 (/isis/citation/CBB000930121/)

Article Mackinnon, Lee; (2014)
Toward an Algorithmic Realism: The Evolving Nature of Astronomical Knowledge in Representations of the Non-Visible (/isis/citation/CBB001201295/)

Book Longair, Malcolm S.; (2006)
The Cosmic Century: A History of Astrophysics and Cosmology (/isis/citation/CBB000772096/)

Book Martin Beech; (2016)
The Wayward Comet: A Descriptive History of Cometary Orbits, Kepler's Problem and the Cometarium (/isis/citation/CBB295174628/)

Article Emily Simpson; (2020)
Ant Mazes and Astronomy: Harlow Shapley's Entomological Experiments at Mount Wilson Observatory and Pasadena, California (/isis/citation/CBB451209861/)

Article Sheehan, William; Osterbrock, Donald E.; (2000)
Hale's “Little Elf”: The Mental Breakdowns of George Ellery Hale (/isis/citation/CBB000671359/)

Article Jafar Taheri; (2021)
Celestial and mythical origins of the citadel of Bukhara (/isis/citation/CBB927089378/)

Article J. E. Arlot; (2019)
Four centuries of observations of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter: increasing the astrometric accuracy (/isis/citation/CBB374940882/)

Article Wilson, Curtis; (2008)
The Nub of the Lunar Problem: From Euler to G. W. Hill (/isis/citation/CBB000930138/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}