George Darwin. Portrait of Sir George Howard Darwin (1845-1912), British astronomer & geophysicist. Son of botanist Charles Darwin, George's most impo

---

George Darwin. Portrait of Sir George Howard Darwin (1845-1912), British astronomer & geophysicist. Son of botanist Charles Darwin, George's most important work regarded the Moon's origin. He used a theory that stated that tides had slowed the Earth's rotation & caused the Moon to recede from the Earth. By extrapolating this into the past, he & Osmond Fisher proposed in 1879 that the Moon had been ripped from the rapidly- spinning Earth billion years ago, leaving behind a basin that became the Pacific Ocean. Although the idea is now generally discredited, it was the first cosmological theory to be based on the principles of mathematical physics.

---

Size: 2657px × 3530px
Photo credit: © Science Photo Library / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomer, cosmologist, darwin, earth-moon, geophysicist, george, howard, moon, origin, physicist, portraits, surname, system, theorist