George Howard Darwin (Darwin George Howard)

(1845-1912)
Born July 9, 1845 at Down (Kent). In 1868 he graduated from Trinity College at Cambridge University, taught there from 1873 as astronomy and philosophy (from 1883 to the post of Professor). Investigated the effect of tidal friction on the evolution of the Earth, moon and double stars. Analyzed some of the questions of the origin and evolution of the solar system, Earth system - the Moon, double stars by considering the equilibrium in the problem of three bodies. In 1879 he proposed the hypothesis of the Moon, according to which the latter was formed by separating from the Earth as a result of the instability created by the Earth under the influence of resonant solar tides. Darwin expounded his ideas in the classic work The tides and kindred phenomena in the Solar System (The Tides and Kindred Phenomena in the Solar System, 1898). Darwin died in Cambridge on Dec. 7, 1912.