United Kingdom
John Goodricke
Warrington Academy, Warrington, Lancashire, United Kingdom
In 1778 John entered Warrington Academy - then a well-known educational institution in the north of England.
1786
United Kingdom
Goodricke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 16 April 1786.
Warrington Academy, Warrington, Lancashire, United Kingdom
In 1778 John entered Warrington Academy - then a well-known educational institution in the north of England.
United Kingdom
Goodricke was awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1783.
United Kingdom
Goodricke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 16 April 1786.
John Goodricke was born on September 17, 1764, in Groningen, Netherlands. He was descended from an old family of English country squires, who, raised to baronetcy by the end of the fifteenth century, were occasionally called upon to perform minor diplomatic services. Thus Henry Goodricke, John’s father, spent several years in consular service at Groningen, where in 1761 he married Levina Benjamina Sessler.
At the age of eight, John was sent from the Netherlands to Edinburgh, to be educated at a school for deaf-mutes which Thomas Braidwood was conducting. Absence of school records conceals the early development of young Goodricke; but his progress must have been satisfactory, for in 1778 he was able to enter Warrington Academy - then a well-known educational institution in the north of England - which made no special provision for handicapped pupils.
After leaving Warrington, Goodricke returned to live with his parents in York. There, he became friends with his neighbor Edward Pigott, whose father Nathaniel Pigott had built a sophisticated private observatory. Edward was already interested in variable stars, and he gave Goodricke a list of those that he thought were worthy of observation.
In November 1782 he was regularly observing the star known as Algol and soon realized that its brightness varies regularly over a period of a few days. By further observations, he confirmed these periodic variations and accurately estimated the period at a bit less than 2 days and 21 hours. Variations in the brightness of Algol, Mira, and other stars had been noted by earlier astronomers, but Goodricke was the first to establish that some variables are truly periodic in nature. He suggested that Algol is what is now known as an eclipsing binary.
In the remainder of his short life, Goodricke discovered the variability of two other stars that are visible with the naked eye. More importantly, he suggested that the variability of Algol was due to its being periodically eclipsed by a darker companion body. This theory was eventually confirmed for Algol, which belongs to the class of stars known as eclipsing variables. Goodricke died at age 21, as a consequence, his contemporaries believed, of his exposure to cold night air while making his observations.
John Goodricke was a prominent astronomer who was the first to notice that some variable stars were periodic. He also gave the first accurate explanation for one type of periodic variable. He was awarded the Copley Medal for this discovery in 1783. Goodricke College at the University of York is named after Goodricke.
Goodricke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 16 April 1786.
Physical Characteristics: Goodricke became deaf and dumb as a result of a severe illness in early infancy.
Goodricke never married.
