An enquiring mind, a determination to get to the bottom of a problem and a certain confidence in your abilities are all useful traits in a scientist. Astronomical arrogance, less so.
Though he undoubtedly knew about binary stars, the one thing American astronomer Thomas Jefferson Jackson See had complete faith in was his own genius. Labelled “the greatest astronomer in the world” in a book purportedly written by a journalist but which See had actually written himself, ‘humility’ just wasn’t in the man’s vocabulary.
Fired from Lowell Observatory for arguing with everybody, See joined the United States Naval Observatory where he made one of his great ‘discoveries’. Published, of course, in the Astronomical Journal, See reported an anomaly in one star’s orbit, suggesting that a third, unknown object might be exerting a gravitational influence. A convincing, well-argued rebuttal of See’s proposed triple system appeared shortly after. See saw red, rattling off an abusive letter to the journal that got him banned from future publication in its pages.
This wouldn’t be the last or biggest spat of his colourful career – See also laid into Einstein about his theory of relativity – but it was a very public fall from grace, especially from such a high place.
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