Background
Comas i Solà was born on December 17, 1868, in Barcelona, Spain.
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, 585, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
In 1890 Comas i Solà was graduated from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Barcelona.
Astronomer scientist discoverer
Comas i Solà was born on December 17, 1868, in Barcelona, Spain.
In 1890 Comas i Solà was graduated from the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the University of Barcelona.
Shortly after obtaining his degree Comas i Solà began his observations of Mars, which he continued in all its oppositions. In 1894 he made the first Spanish relief map of Mars, in which he incorporated all the latest findings on that planet.
He was one of the first to theorize that the contours of the so-called Martian canals were more apparent than real. Many of his observations found their way into Flammarion’s La planète Mars. Comas i Solà extended his observations to other planets, notably Jupiter and Saturn. In 1902 he determined the period of rotation of Saturn by using the white tropical spot of Barnard as a point of reference. In 1915, anticipating the work of foreign scientists better remembered by posterity, Comas i Solá published in the Boletín Observatorio Fabra an article entitled “La teoría corpuscular ondulatoria de la radiación,” in which he tried to harmonize what had been considered two contradictory theories: the wave and corpuscular theories of radiation.
He also did work in seismology, devising a method of ascertaining the depth of seismic epicenters and inventing the stereogoniometer for studying the courses and movements of stars. His constant observations of the heavens resulted in the discovery of two comets, the first to be discovered in Spain for three centuries, and in the discovery of the first eight asteroids in Spain. He was the founder and director until his death of the Observatorio Fabra, first president of the Sociedad Astronómica de España y América, and editor of Urania (Barcelona).