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5 unusual facts about Rømer's determination of the speed of light


Rømer's determination of the speed of light

The Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini had pioneered the use of the eclipses of the Galilean moons for longitude measurements, and published tables predicting when eclipses would be visible from a given location.

Cassini noted that the other three Galilean moons did not seem to show the same effect as seen for Io, and that there were other irregularities which could not be explained by Rømer's theory.

It would be another thirty years before A. A. Michelson in the United States published his more precise results (299,910±50 km/s) and Simon Newcomb confirmed the agreement with astronomical measurements, almost exactly two centuries after Rømer's announcement.

Rømer appears to be collecting data on eclipses of the Galilean moons in the form of an aide-mémoire, possibly as he was preparing to return to Denmark in 1681.

The orbit of Io is also slightly irregular because of orbital resonance with Europa and Ganymede, two of the other Galilean moons of Jupiter, but this would not be fully explained for another century.


Peder Horrebow

In 1728, the great fire of Copenhagen destroyed all of the papers and observations made by Rømer, who had died in 1710.


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