Owen Gingerich

FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 31, Number 8.

Astronomer Owen Gingerich passed away on May 28, 2023 at the age of 93. With his passing, we lost one of the top scholars devoted to the history of astronomy and someone who almost kept Pluto as a planet.

When I first retired several years ago, I decided to renew my interest in astronomy and in particular focus on an area called Cosmology, the large-scale structure and history of the universe. I’ve always been interested in what I call “the history of the universe’s history,” and how our view of the universe has changed over time.

I spent weeks learning about Ptolemy’s geocentric view of the cosmos and the shift to a heliocentric view with the publication of On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres by Nicholas Copernicus. In doing so, I came across some of the works of Owen Gingerich.

Professor Gingerich is probably best known by the general public for his book titled, The Book Nobody Read. In it he challenged the notion that the great work of Copernicus was read by very few people. Gingerich searched the world looking for the remaining copies of On the Revolutions. He discovered that, not only did scholars of the time read it, but they annotated it with notes and comments.

He also studied the reaction by astronomers of the day to Copernicus’ work and his revolutionary ideas. He told us of the “geo-helio-centric” views of Paul Wittich, Tycho Brahe, and Reymers Baer, who embraced some of Copernicus’ ideas, but didn’t quite remove the Earth from the center of the Solar System.

Owen Gingerich played another important role in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union (IAU) was debating the definition of a planet and deciding the fate of Pluto. Gingerich was a member of the Working Group on the Definition of a Planet, formed by the IAU in March 2004. This group didn’t reach a conclusion but did offer some possibilities. They were followed by the smaller Planet Classification Committee, which included Gingerich and six others.

This committee reached a conclusion and offered its recommendation to the IAU as a whole. The recommendation would keep Pluto as a planet and add three new planets (Ceres, Eris, and Charon) to the list giving us a total of twelve planets. In addition, the eight traditional planets would be called “classical planets” and the new planets “dwarf planets.” But all twelve would be planets.

After several days of intense debate, the verdict was in. Alas, it was a sad day for Pluto. Despite Professor Gingerich’s objections, Pluto (along with Eris and Ceres) were reclassified as only dwarf planets – they were not planets. The eight “classical planets” would be the only official planets without the “classical” designation. Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, would be just a moon.

Professor Gingerich provided a nice summary of the process (and chaos) in his November 2006 Sky & Telescope article “Losing it in Prague.” Unfortunately, I can no longer find it online. If I do, I will update the link below.

Owen Gingerich accomplished much more in his 93 years. You can read about his life and work in the references below. However, his study of Copernicus and his involvement with the reclassification of Pluto are the things I will remember.