Euler: Genius Blind Astronomer Mathematician

TL;DR

This paper reviews Euler's groundbreaking contributions to astronomy, highlighting his work on celestial mechanics, planetary orbits, and the discovery of Lagrangian points, which laid foundational methods still relevant today.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of Euler's pioneering astronomical work, emphasizing his mathematical approaches to celestial mechanics and the discovery of key equilibrium points.

Findings

Euler determined the orbits of planets and comets.

He discovered two of the five Lagrangian points.

Euler's methods laid foundations for modern celestial mechanics.

Abstract

Leonhard Euler, the most prolific mathematician in history, contributed to advance a wide spectrum of topics in celestial mechanics. At the Saint Petersburg Observatory, Euler observed sunspots and tracked the movements of the Moon. Combining astronomical observations with his own mathematical genius, he determined the orbits of planets and comets. Euler laid the foundations of the methods of planetary perturbations and solved many of the Newtonian mechanics problems of the eighteenth century that are relevant today. In his study of the three-body problem, Euler discovered two of the five equilibrium points so-called the Lagrangian points. His pioneering work in astronomy was recognized with six of the twelve prizes he won from the Paris Academy of Sciences. In this article, we review some of Euler's most interesting contributions to astronomy.