Tom Van Flandern: Difference between revisions

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==Life==
==Life==
Van Flandern graduated from [[Xavier University]] in 1962 and then attended [[Yale University]] on a scholarship sponsored by the [[U.S. Naval Observatory]] (USNO). In 1969, he received a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in Astronomy from Yale. Van Flandern worked at the USNO until 1983,<ref name="planetx"/><ref name="aps"/> having become the Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch of the Nautical Almanac Office.{{cn}} Afterwards he worked as a consultant at the [[United States Army Research Laboratory]] in [[Adelphi, Maryland]], working on improving the accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS).<ref name="obit">{{cite web | url =http://www.sequimgazette.com/obituaries/article.exm/2009-01-21_obituaries |title = obituary|work =[[Sequim Gazette]] }}</ref>
Van Flandern graduated from [[Xavier University]] in 1962 and then attended [[Yale University]] on a scholarship sponsored by the [[U.S. Naval Observatory]] (USNO). In 1969, he received a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in Astronomy from Yale. Van Flandern worked at the USNO until 1983,<ref name="planetx"/><ref name="aps"/> having become the Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch of the Nautical Almanac Office.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Colin Keay | title = Letter | journal = [[Australian & New Zealand Physicist]] | volume = 30 | issue = 9 | date = Sept. 1993 | page = <!-- I'll fetch this tomorrow --> }}</ref> Afterwards he worked as a consultant at the [[United States Army Research Laboratory]] in [[Adelphi, Maryland]], working on improving the accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS).<ref name="obit">{{cite web | url =http://www.sequimgazette.com/obituaries/article.exm/2009-01-21_obituaries |title = obituary|work =[[Sequim Gazette]] }}</ref>


In 1991 he founded Meta Research, an organisation which fostered and promoted unorthodox views and research that conflicted with mainstream astronomy,<ref name="obit"/><ref name="planetx">{{cite book | title = The hunt for planet X: new worlds and the fate of Pluto | author = Govert Schilling | pages = 85-91 | publisher = [[Springer Japan]] | isbn = 0387778047 }}</ref><ref name="aps">{{cite journal | url = http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/199604/funding.cfm | title = "Meta" Researcher Champions New Funding Sources for Independent Science | date = April 1996 | volume = 5 | issue = 4 | journal = [[American Physical Society |APS News]] }}</ref> and in 1992 the organisation established a quarterly periodical ''Meta Research Bulletin'', which Van Flandern was the editor of.<ref>[http://www.metaresearch.org/publications/bulletin/index.asp Back issues of Bulletin]</ref><ref>{{OCLC|34048593}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Against the Tide: A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done | author = Martín López Corredoira, Carlos Castro Perelman | publisher = [[Universal Publishers (USA)|Universal-Publishers]] | year = 2008 | page = 126 }}</ref>
In 1991 he founded Meta Research, an organisation which fostered and promoted unorthodox views and research that conflicted with mainstream astronomy,<ref name="obit"/><ref name="planetx">{{cite book | title = The hunt for planet X: new worlds and the fate of Pluto | author = Govert Schilling | pages = 85-91 | publisher = [[Springer Japan]] | isbn = 0387778047 }}</ref><ref name="aps">{{cite journal | url = http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/199604/funding.cfm | title = "Meta" Researcher Champions New Funding Sources for Independent Science | date = April 1996 | volume = 5 | issue = 4 | journal = [[American Physical Society |APS News]] }}</ref> and in 1992 the organisation established a quarterly periodical ''Meta Research Bulletin'', which Van Flandern was the editor of.<ref>[http://www.metaresearch.org/publications/bulletin/index.asp Back issues of Bulletin]</ref><ref>{{OCLC|34048593}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Against the Tide: A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done | author = Martín López Corredoira, Carlos Castro Perelman | publisher = [[Universal Publishers (USA)|Universal-Publishers]] | year = 2008 | page = 126 }}</ref>

Revision as of 11:06, 2 September 2010

Thomas C Van Flandern
Born(1940-06-26)26 June 1940
United States
Died29 January 2009(2009-01-29) (aged 68)
Sequim, Washington, United States
NationalityAmerican
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomer

Thomas C Van Flandern (June 26, 1940 – January 9, 2009) was an American astronomer, specializing in celestial mechanics, who was an outspoken proponent of unorthodox views related to astronomy, physics, and extra-terrestrial life.

Life

Van Flandern graduated from Xavier University in 1962 and then attended Yale University on a scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). In 1969, he received a PhD in Astronomy from Yale. Van Flandern worked at the USNO until 1983,[1][2] having become the Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch of the Nautical Almanac Office.[3] Afterwards he worked as a consultant at the United States Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, working on improving the accuracy of the Global Positioning System (GPS).[4]

In 1991 he founded Meta Research, an organisation which fostered and promoted unorthodox views and research that conflicted with mainstream astronomy,[4][1][2] and in 1992 the organisation established a quarterly periodical Meta Research Bulletin, which Van Flandern was the editor of.[5][6][7]

He also organized eclipse viewing tours, and spoke at public lectures.[8] He died in Sequim, Washington after a brief battle with cancer.[4]

Beliefs

Artificial features on Mars

Van Flandern advocated several ideas related to astronomy and physics which were not supported by the mainstream scientific community. In particular, he was a prominent advocate of the belief that certain geological features seen on Mars, especially the "face at Cydonia", are not of natural origin, but were produced by intelligent extra-terrestrial life, probably the inhabitants of a major planet once located where the asteroid belt presently exists, and which Van Flandern believed had exploded 3.2 million years ago. He gave lectures on the subject[9] and at the conclusion of the lectures he described his overall conception

"We've shown conclusively that at least some of the artifacts on the surface of Mars were artificially produced, and the evidence indicates they were produced approximately 3.2 million years ago, which is when Planet V exploded. Mars was a moon of Planet V, and we speculate that the Builders created the artificial structures as theme parks and advertisements to catch the attention of space tourists from Planet V (much as we may do on our own Moon some day, when lunar tourism becomes prevalent), or perhaps they are museums of some kind. Remember that the Face at Cydonia was located on the original equator of Mars. The Builder's civilization ended 3.2 million years ago. The evidence suggests that the explosion was anticipated, so the Builders may have departed their world, and it produced a massive flood, because Planet V was a water world. It is a coincidence that the face on Mars is hominid, like ours, and the earliest fossil record on Earth of hominids is the "Lucy" fossil from 3.2 million years ago. There have been some claims of earlier hominid fossils, but Lucy is the earliest that is definite. So I leave you with the thought that there may be a grain of truth in The War of the Worlds, with the twist that WE are the Martians.

Alternative theories of gravity and physics

Van Flandern advocated inquiry into astronomy theories which he felt were consistent with the principles of science but were not otherwise supported because they conflicted with mainstream theories. He espoused 10 principles for assessing ideas and dubbed theories in compliance as “Deep Reality Physics". He published one such belief in a paper claiming the existence of "faster-than-light gravitational interactions."[10] He contended (as had Laplace around 1800[citation needed], but contrary to the current scientific consensus represented by general relativity) that the absence of gravitational aberration implies that the speed of gravity must be billions of times greater than the speed of light. The journal in which this paper appeared subsequently published two follow-up papers, explaining why Van Flandern's claim is incorrect.[11][12] Van Flandern also asserted faster-than-light propagation of electromagnetic forces and quantum field interactions in a paper co-authored with Jean-Pierre Vigier[13]. In addition, Van Flandern espoused Le Sage's theory of gravitation, according to which gravity is the result of a flux of invisible "ultra-mundane corpuscles" impinging on all objects from all directions at superluminal speeds.

Van Flandern authored a book, Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets: Paradoxes Resolved, Origins Illuminated[14], in which he rejected and offered replacements for the fundamental theories of modern physics (especially special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics), and challenged prevailing notions regarding dark matter, the big bang, and solar system formation, and advocated the theory that the asteroid belt consists of the remains of an exploded planet. He issued newsletters, papers, and maintained a website devoted to his ideas, which have not found acceptance within the mainstream scientific community.[15]

Awards and honors

In 1974, his essay, "A Determination of the Rate of Change of G,"[16] was awarded second place by Gravity Research Foundation.[17][18]

In 2009, asteroid 52266 was named in honor of Van Flandern, with the following citation given in Minor Planet Circulars, which regularly publishes names given to asteroids:[19][20]

(52266) Van Flandern = 1986 AD Tom Van Flandern (1940-2009) predicted and comprehensively analyzed lunar occultations at the U.S. Naval Observatory in the 1970s. In 1979 he published pioneering papers on the dynamics of binary minor planets. He helped improve GPS accuracies and established Meta Research to support alternative cosmological ideas.

References

  1. ^ a b Govert Schilling. The hunt for planet X: new worlds and the fate of Pluto. Springer Japan. pp. 85–91. ISBN 0387778047.
  2. ^ a b ""Meta" Researcher Champions New Funding Sources for Independent Science". APS News. 5 (4). April 1996.
  3. ^ Colin Keay (Sept. 1993). "Letter". Australian & New Zealand Physicist. 30 (9). {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b c "obituary". Sequim Gazette.
  5. ^ Back issues of Bulletin
  6. ^ OCLC 34048593
  7. ^ Martín López Corredoira, Carlos Castro Perelman (2008). Against the Tide: A Critical Review by Scientists of How Physics and Astronomy Get Done. Universal-Publishers. p. 126.
  8. ^ "Biography". Meta Research.
  9. ^ "Mysterious Mars". YouTube.
  10. ^ Vanflandern, T (1998). "The speed of gravity ? What the experiments say". Physics Letters A. 250: 1. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(98)00650-1.
  11. ^ Marsh, G (1999). "Comment on "The speed of gravity"". Physics Letters A. 262: 257. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(99)00675-1.
  12. ^ Carlip, S. (2000). "Aberration and the Speed of Gravity". Phys. Lett. A. 267: 81–87. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(00)00101-8. arXiv:gr-qc/9909087.
  13. ^ Van Flandern, Tom; Vigier, Jean-Pierre (2002). Foundations of Physics. 32: 1031. doi:10.1023/A:1016530625645. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ^ Tom Van Flandern. Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets: Paradoxes Resolved, Origins Illuminated. North Atlantic Books (Berkeley, CA 1993 and 1999). ISBN 978-1556432682.
  15. ^ "Salon story about relativity dissidents including Van Flandern". Salon.com.
  16. ^ http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/pdf/awarded/1974/vanflandern.pdf
  17. ^ http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_year.html
  18. ^ For a time during the mid-1970s, Van Flandern believed that lunar observations gave evidence of variation in Newton's gravitational constant G, consistent with a speculative idea that had been put forward by Paul Dirac. However, subsequent developments made it clear that Van Flandern's claimed effect was not statistically significant, and it was contradicted by more accurate findings based on radio measurements with the Viking landers. See the discussion of Van Flandern's work on page 175 and following in Clifford Will's book "Was Einstein Right? Putting General Relativity to the Test", Basic Books, 2nd ed., 1993.
  19. ^ Minor Planet Circulars 65123
  20. ^ "Citation for 52266". Minor Planet Center.

External links

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