ASTRONOMERS from Spain

Top 6

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Spanish Astronomers of all time. This list of famous Spanish Astronomers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Avempace (1080 - 1138)

With an HPI of 66.58, Avempace is the most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 44 different languages on wikipedia.

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyà ibn aṣ-Ṣā’igh at-Tūjībī ibn Bājja (Arabic: أبو بكر محمد بن يحيى بن الصائغ التجيبي بن باجة), best known by his Latinised name Avempace (; c. 1085 – 1138), was an Andalusi polymath, whose writings include works regarding astronomy, physics, and music, as well as philosophy, medicine, botany, and poetry. He was the author of the Kitāb an-Nabāt ("The Book of Plants"), a popular work on botany, which defined the sex of plants. His philosophical theories influenced the work of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) and Albertus Magnus. Most of his writings and books were not completed (or well-organized) due to his early death. He had a vast knowledge of medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. His main contribution to Islamic philosophy was his idea on soul phenomenology, which was never completed. Avempace was, in his time, not only a prominent figure of philosophy but also of music and poetry. His diwan (Arabic: collection of poetry) was rediscovered in 1951. Though many of his works have not survived, his theories in astronomy and physics were preserved by Moses Maimonides and Averroes respectively, and influenced later astronomers and physicists in the Islamic civilization and Renaissance Europe, including Galileo Galilei. Avempace wrote one of the first (argued by some to be the first) commentaries on Aristotle in the Western world. While his work on projectile motion was never translated from Arabic to Latin, his views became well known around the Western world and to Western philosophers, astronomers, and scientists of many disciplines. His works impacted contemporary medieval thought, and later influenced Galileo and his work. Avempace's theories on projectile motion are found in the text known as "Text 71".

2. Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (1029 - 1087)

With an HPI of 61.11, Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī is the 2nd most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Yaḥyā al-Naqqāsh al-Zarqālī al-Tujibi (Arabic: إبراهيم بن يحيى الزرقالي); also known as Al-Zarkali or Ibn Zarqala (1029–1100), was an Arab maker of astronomical instruments and an astrologer from the western part of the Islamic world. Although his name is conventionally given as al-Zarqālī, it is probable that the correct form was al-Zarqālluh. In Latin he was referred to as Arzachel or Arsechieles, a modified form of Arzachel, meaning 'the engraver'. He lived in Toledo, Al-Andalus before moving to Córdoba later in his life. His works inspired a generation of Islamic astronomers in Al-Andalus, and later, after being translated, were very influential in Europe. His invention of the Saphaea (a perfected astrolabe) proved very popular and was widely used by navigators until the 16th century. The crater Arzachel on the Moon is named after him.

3. Maslama al-Majriti (950 - 1007)

With an HPI of 57.49, Maslama al-Majriti is the 3rd most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Abu al-Qasim Maslama ibn Ahmad al-Majriti (Arabic: أبو القاسم مسلمة بن أحمد المجريطي: c. 950–1007), known or Latin as Methilem, was a Muslim Arab astronomer, alchemist, mathematician, economist and Scholar in Islamic Spain, active during the reign of Al-Hakam II. His full name is Abu 'l-Qāsim Maslama ibn Aḥmad al-Faraḍī al-Ḥāsib al-Maj̲rīṭī al-Qurṭubī al-Andalusī.

4. Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji (1200 - 1204)

With an HPI of 56.53, Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji is the 4th most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Nur ad-Din al-Bitruji (Arabic: نور الدين ابن إسحاق البطروجي) (also spelled Nur al-Din Ibn Ishaq al-Betrugi and Abu Ishâk ibn al-Bitrogi) (known in the West by the Latinized name of Alpetragius) (died c. 1204) was an Andalusian-Arab astronomer and a Qadi in al-Andalus. Al-Biṭrūjī was the first astronomer to present a non-Ptolemaic astronomical system as an alternative to Ptolemy's models, with the planets borne by geocentric spheres. Another original aspect of his system was that he proposed a physical cause of celestial motions. His alternative system spread through most of Europe during the 13th century. The crater Alpetragius on the Moon is named after him.

5. Antonio de Ulloa (1716 - 1795)

With an HPI of 54.31, Antonio de Ulloa is the 5th most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Antonio de Ulloa (12 January 1716 – 3 July 1795) was a Spanish naval officer, scientist, and administrator. At the age of nineteen, he joined the French Geodesic Mission to what is now the country of Ecuador. That mission took more than eight years to complete its work, during which time Ulloa made many astronomical, natural, and social observations in South America. The reports of Ulloa's findings earned him an international reputation as a leading savant. Those reports include the first published observations of the metal platinum, later identified as a new chemical element. Ulloa was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1746, and as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1751. Ulloa served the Spanish Crown as governor of Huancavelica (1758–64), in Perú, and superintendent of the quicksilver mines in the region. Following the defeat of France in the Seven Years' War, Ulloa was appointed as the first Spanish governor of Louisiana in 1766. His rule was strongly resisted by the French Creole colonists in New Orleans, who expelled him from the city in the Louisiana Rebellion of 1768. Ulloa continued to serve in the Spanish Navy, achieving the rank of vice-admiral and becoming its chief of operations.

6. Josep Comas i Solà (1868 - 1937)

With an HPI of 51.89, Josep Comas i Solà is the 6th most famous Spanish Astronomer.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Josep Comas i Solà (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒuˈzɛp ˈkoməz i suˈla]; Barcelona 17 December 1868 – 2 December 1937) was a Spanish astronomer, of Catalan origin, discoverer of minor planets, comets, and double stars. He wrote his first astronomy notes at 10, and was only fifteen when he published an article in a French specialist magazine. He observed planets including Mars and Saturn, measuring the rotation period of the latter. He wrote some books popularizing astronomy, and was first president of the Spanish and American Astronomical Society (Spanish: Sociedad Astrónomica de España y América; S.A.D.E.Y.A.). He discovered the periodic comet 32P/Comas Solà, and co-discovered the non-periodic comet C/1925 F1 (Shajn-Comas Solà); he is also credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 11 asteroids during 1915–1930. Comas i Solà is also credited with the discovery of the double star SOL 1. In 1905, Solà received the Prix Jules Janssen, the highest award of the Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society. In 1908 he claimed to observe limb darkening of Saturn's moon Titan, the first evidence that the body had an atmosphere. He was the head of Fabra Observatory since it was established in 1904. The asteroids 1102 Pepita (from his nickname Pepito) and 1655 Comas Solà are named after him, as is Comas Sola crater on Mars.