Zöllner, Johann Karl Friedrich (1834–1882)
German astronomer at the University of Leipzig who used photometry
to measure the reflectivity of the planets. In a 1874 paper he concluded
from Mercury's low albedo
that the innermost planet probably had no significant atmosphere. This dealt
a severe blow to the prospects for Mercurian habitation (see Mercury,
life). In 1872, Zöllner outspokenly criticized the lithopanspermia
hypothesis of William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
on two grounds: (1) that it offered no explanation as to how life arose
in the first place (merely shifting that problem from the Earth to some
other world), and (2) that it failed to explain how organisms could survive
the high-temperature passage of a meteorite through the Earth's atmosphere.
Related entry
• Helmholtz, Hermann
von
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• ASTRONOMERS
AND ASTROPHYSICISTS
• MATHEMATICIANS
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