William Henry Pickering

William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 17, 1938) was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He discovered Saturn's ninth moon Phoebe in 1899 from plates taken in 1898. He also believed he had discovered a tenth moon in 1905 from plates taken in 1904, which he called "Themis". Unfortunately "Themis" does not exist. Following George Darwin, he speculated in 1907 that the moon was once a part of the earth and that... more

William Henry Pickering (February 15, 1858 – January 17, 1938) was an American astronomer, brother of Edward Charles Pickering. He discovered Saturn's ninth moon Phoebe in 1899 from plates taken in 1898. He also believed he had discovered a tenth moon in 1905 from plates taken in 1904, which he called "Themis". Unfortunately "Themis" does not exist. Following George Darwin, he speculated in 1907 that the moon was once a part of the earth and that it broke away where now the Pacific Ocean lies. He also proposed some sort of continental drift (even before Alfred Wegener) and speculated that America, Asia, Africa, and Europe once formed a single continent, which broke up because of the separation of the moon. In 1908 he made a statement regarding the possibility of airplanes that had not yet been invented, saying that "a popular fantasy is to suppose that flying machines could be used to drop dynamite on the enemy in time of war". He led solar eclipse expeditions and studied craters on... less