History of Astronomy

The historians of SYRTE study ancient and modern astronomical texts, in Latin, Greek or French, providing critical editions of them, along with commentaries.

Their research also deals with: the application of mathematics to physics from the 17th-19th centuries, the conceptualisation of the infinity during the Classical period, the history of the beginnings of celestial mechanics during the 18th century and that of astronomy and contemporary physics (including the history of relativity, of Newtonian optics and of theories of gravitation).

The Copernicus project

This Project provides the first integral French translation of Nicolas Copernicus' masterpiece: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543). This version is based on a critical Latin text and is presented in the form of a bi-lingual edition, accompanied by historical and technical commentary. The Copernicus Project team also examines the mathematicalhumanism of the second part of the 15th century, which created the favourable climate in which Copernicus' work appeared. In addition, it studies how the heliocentric doctrine was accepted up to around the middle of the 17th century, firstly and foremostly, by astronomers, most notably, Tycho Brahe and Kepler- but also by philosophers and theologians. Finally, it examines the condemnation of the Copernican doctrine in 1616, and Galileo's trial in 1633, the supporting documents of which will be the subject of a forthcoming critical edition, with accompanying French translation.

Jean d'Alembert

Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (1717 - 1783), Encyclopédiste and scientist of the Enlightenment, was one of the pioneers in Newtonian celestial mechanic. In particular, he has been the author of one of the earliest lunar theories and of the first rigorous theory for the motion of the Earth's axis in space. In this area, some SYRTE researchers are involved in the critical complete edition of his works, presently in progress. They are the editors of two volumes of it, which have been recently published by CNRS Editions: in 2002 Premiers textes de mécanique céleste 1747 - 1749 and in 2006 Précession et nutation 1749 - 1752.

Light, Gravitation, Relativity

The question of the light propagation in a Newtonian context was raised in the second half of the 18th century. But the observed constancy of the velocity of light will impose the ether - unreconciliable with the Galilean relativity. The 19th century will have many difficulties in answering this question. One will have to wait for Einstein's kinematics and gravitational theory to solve the problem. Most of our work, books and papers deal with this problematics.

Seminars

The SYRTE team "Histoire de l'Astronomie" SYRTE organize also Talks about History of Astronomy and talks with specific topic: "Qu'appelle-t-on les débuts de la science classique?" and "Le goût de l'archive".