乔治·埃勒理·海耳:美国天体物理学之父、大科学的先驱

George Ellery Hale,Father of Astrophysics and Pioneer of Big Science

乔治·埃勒理·海耳是美国天体物理学之父,他在19世纪末20世纪初的一系列关于太阳光谱和恒星性质的实验和理论研究工作,为20世纪古典天文学向现代天体物理学的转化和太阳物理学的发展奠定了坚实的基础。同时,他也是一位科学事业卓越的组织者、一位造诣极高的仪器制造专家,特别是他所推动和主持建造的威尔逊山天文台和帕洛马山天文台100和200英寸望远镜,实开超大型科学仪器制造的先河,标志了美国大科学时代来临。这使他成为当之无愧的美国大科学的先驱。

George Ellery Hale is one of outstanding American astronomers and the father of astrophysics in the turn of the century. He has done a plenty of research work of solar spectrascopies, of sun-spots magnets and their polarity, and stellar characters and their evolution. All of those pave the way from classical astronomy to the modern astrophysics in the 20th century. He is also an excellent organizer for scientific career and a master builder of gigantic scientific instrument making,especially the 100 and 200-inch optical telescopes in Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories, which were founded by Hale, are the symbol of the coming of big science. Hale is really a pioneer of the age of big science in the US.