| Donald Howard Menzel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 11, 1901 Florence, Colorado |
| Died |
December 14, 1976 |
| Nationality | United states |
| Fields | astronomy |
Donald Howard Menzel (April 11, 1901 – December 14, 1976) was an American astronomer and astrophysicist.
He was one of the leading astronomers of his era, and also earned notoriety as an early skeptic of UFOs as an extraordinary phenomenon.
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Born in Florence, Colorado, Menzel was a very good student, especially interested in mathematics and science. He learned to read very early, learned Morse code from his father, collected ore specimen, became a amateur radio operator, built up a large home chemistry lab, was an Eagle Scout, and learned Spanish.[1]
At 16 years old, Menzel enrolled at the University of Colorado to study chemistry. However, observing a solar eclipse in 1918 led him to change his course of study to astronomy. Menzel earned an internship at Princeton University, and spent summer vacations at Harvard University as a research assistant to Harlow Shapley.
Menzel studied at the University of Denver and received his Ph.D. from Princeton. After earning his Ph.D. in 1924, Menzel taught at the University of Iowa and Ohio State University before being hired as assistant astronomer at the Lick Observatory in California in 1926. Menzel was among the first theoretical astrophysicists in the world. He worked at Lick Observatory until 1932 when he accepted a position at Harvard. From 1954-56 he was President of the American Astronomical Society. From 1964 to his death, Menzel was a U.S. State Department consultant for Latin American affairs.
He began teaching at Harvard in 1932, and earned full professorship in 1938; in 1952 he was appointed acting director of the Harvard Observatory, and was the full director from 1954 to 1966, when the observatory became an international center of radio astronomy. He retired from Harvard in 1971.
Menzel initially performed solar research, but later concentrated on studying gaseous nebulae. His work with Lawrence Aller and James Gilbert Baker defined many of the fundamental principles of the study of planetary nebulae.
He wrote A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, part of the Peterson Field Guides.
In addition to his academic and popular contributions to the field of astronomy, Menzel was a prominent skeptic concerning the reality of UFOs. He authored or co-authored three popular books debunking UFOs: Flying Saucers (book) (1953), The World Of Flying Saucers: A Scientific Examination of a Major Myth of the Space Age (1963), and The UFO Enigma: The Definitive Explanation of the UFO Phenomenon (1977). All of Menzel's UFO books argued that UFOs were nothing more than misidentification of prosaic phenomena such as stars, clouds and airplanes; or the result of people seeing unusual atmospheric phenomena they were unfamiliar with. He often suggested that atmospheric hazes or temperature inversions could distort stars or planets, and make them appear to be larger than in reality, unusual in their shape, and in motion. In 1968, Menzel testified before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics - Symposium on UFOs, stating that he considered all UFO sightings to have natural explanations.
He was perhaps the first prominent scientist to offer his opinion on the matter, and his stature doubtless influenced the mainstream and academic response to the subject.
Perhaps Menzel's earliest public involvement in UFO matters was his appearance on a radio documentary directed and narrated by Edward R. Murrow in mid-1950. (Swords, 98)
Menzel's theories met with mixed reactions. Edward J. Ruppelt, the first head of the UFO investigation Project Blue Book, wrote:
UFO enthusiast sites also cite an internal U.S. Air Force analysis, which stated:
Condemnations from ufologists were harsh. The cryptozoologist Richard Greenwell wrote, "[m]ost UFO advocates considered him an 'archenemy.' Many of his [UFO] explanations were, in fact, reasonable, and Menzel certainly had the technical background to evaluate such data. However, he rarely conducted field checks and limited himself to more theoretical explanations, which, however unlikely, he considered to be more probable than extraterrestrial visitation. He accepted the probability of many technologically advanced civilizations throughout the galaxy, but not that they could easily, and routinely, travel across interstellar distances to earth." (Greenwell, 229) Atmospheric physicist and UFO researcher James E. McDonald used the word "Menzelian" to describe the astronomer's approach to UFOs (which McDonald judged inadequate, dismissive and superficial). MUFON consultant Ron Westrum writes, "The paradox is that his UFO books represent quite shoddy science, in contrast to his better-known work in astrophysics." (Westrum, p 34) Westrum suggests that despite Menzel's "shoddy" UFO studies, "thanks to a type of halo effect, Menzel's reputation in astronomy buttressed his loosely put together scientific arguments." (Westrum, p. 35) Psychologist Carl Jung, who attributed UFO sightings to subconscious mental processes,[4] declared that Menzel "has not succeeded, despite all his efforts, in offering a satisfying explanation of even one authentic UFO report." (Jung, 147)
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