Born Lusigny, Aube, France, 9 April 1816
Died at sea near Cherbourg, France, 5 August 1872
Charles-Eugène Delaunay was a professor, director of the Paris Observatory, mathematician, and a significant contributor to lunar theory. The son of Jacques-Hubert Delaunay, a mathematics teacher, and Catherine Choiselat, Delaunay entered the École Polytechnique in 1834. Ranked first in his class 2 years later, he received the first Laplace Prize, a copy of the astronomer’s complete works that is said to have prompted his interest in celestial mechanics. After turning down an offer from Dominique Arago to join the Paris Observatory after his mentor Félix Savary , from the Bureau des longitudes, said that this amounted to forfeiting his independence, Delaunay attended the École des mines, with which he stayed closely associated through the early part of his career. He married Marie-Olympe Millot in 1839, and they had a son the following year; after her untimely death in 1849, he raised his son...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Selected References
Adams, John C. (1870). “Address Delivered by the Chairman, J. C. Adams, on Presenting the Gold Medal of the Society to M. Charles Delaunay.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society30: 122–132.
Aguillon, Louis (1889). L’École des mines de Paris: Notice historique. Paris: Vve Ch. Dunod.
Hill, G. W. (1896). “Remarks on the Progress of Celestial Mechanics since the Middle of the Century.” Science, n.s., 3: 333–341.
Pavelle, Richard, Michael Rothstein, and John Fitch (1981). “Computer Algebra.” Scientific American245, no. 6: 136–152.
Thévenot, Arsène (1878). Charles-Eugène Delaunay, Membre de l’Institut, Directeur de l’Observatoire de Paris (1816–1872). Troyes: Dufour-Bouquot.
Tisserand, Félix (1894). Cours de mécanique céleste. Vol. 3. Paris: Gauthier-Villars. (Reprinted in 1990. Paris: Jacques Gabay.)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Aubin, D. (2014). Delaunay, Charles-Eugène. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_347
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_347
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-9916-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-9917-7
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics