Essay on Biography of Johann Elert Bode - 564 Words

Johann Elert Bode was born in Hamburg, Germany on January 19, 1747. His father was a merchant and his mother stayed at home with him and his eight younger brothers and sisters. Bode never went to formal school, but his father was determined to teach him how to be a great merchant. However, Bode didn’t want to become a merchant. He was very interested in mathematics, geography, and astrology. He decided to go against what his father was teaching him and pursue a career in Astrology instead. When Bode was a child he had a nasty eye infection that caused him to lose most of his sight in his right eye. This didn’t keep him from his studies or his astrological findings. When Bode was 18 his father died of a serious illness. After this†¦show more content†¦Uranus was later found and its number is 19. Bode’s law can not, however, accurately give the correct answer for Neptune and Pluto. While Bode’s name is in the name of the law he was not the person w ho created it. He was only the person who popularized it. Johann Daniel Titius was actually the first person to first announce it. Bode had written about it in one of his studies but he had not credited Titius for his works, so people just assumed that it was Bode’s findings. Bode later gave Titius the credit he deserved, hence the second name of the law, Bode-Titius Law. Bode has many other contributions to astronomy. He found, in total, four different celestial bodies and â€Å"rediscovered† three others. He discovered M81, a spiral galaxy in Ursa Major; M82, an irregular galaxy also in Ursa Major; M53, a globular cluster in Coma Berenices; M92, another globular cluster, in Hercules; M64, a spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, this one was discovered by Edward Pigott then Bode rediscovered it 12 days later; M48, an open cluster in Hydra, discovered by Charles Messier; and IC4665, an open open cluster in Ophiuchus, discovered by De Cheseaux. Also, in 1776 Bode created his version of the theory of the solar constitution. Later in 1795, Sir William Herschel created his theory of the theory of the solar constitution by tweaking Bode’s version to fit his beliefs. Bode is the man whom came up with the planet name â€Å"Uranus† and it has been called that ever since. Bode had many