Owen Gingerich
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Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
What He Studies
The nature of truth in science and how our understanding of the universe—its creation and design—is formed through observation, interpretation, and persuasion, as well as our personal picture of the world and our place in it.
recent articles on Space & Time
in the news
In a Planet-or-Not Debate, Some Astronomers Say “Long Live Planet Pluto”
What, exactly, is a planet? The definition has changed as new observations accrued, says Harvard astronomer and historian Owen Gingerich, who chaired the IAU committee charged with defining the word. For some, the definition of a planet is kind of like the Supreme Court definition of pornography: You know it when you see it.
— National Geographic
Kepler, Mars and the Turning Point in Astronomy
In the debut issue of a new open access online journal, Euresis, Owen Gingerich offers a fascinating essay on Johannes Kepler and his book Astronomia Nova.
— Forbes
Connect
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
60 Garden Street, MS 9
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-7216
Email: ogingerich@cfa.harvard.edu
How did the universe come to exist, how did life begin, and are we alone in the universe?