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Thomas C Van Flandern (June 26, 1940 – January 9, 2009) was an American astronomer and author specializing in celestial mechanics. Van Flandern had a career as a professional scientist, but was noted as an outspoken proponent of non-mainstream views related to astronomy, physics, and extra-terrestrial life. He also published the non-mainstream Meta Research Bulletin. He died in Sequim, Washington after a brief battle with cancer.

Early life and the US Naval Observatory

While in High School, Van Flandern helped create the Cleveland Moonwatchers organization to track satellites that gained national attention during the sputnik launch of 1957. He was still engaged in this activity when he helped found a Moonwatchers team at Xavier University. According to the Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory the team, under Van Flandern's direction, broke a tracking record in 1961. This early interest in Lunar Occultations paved the way for important work later in life.

Van Flandern graduated from Xavier University cum laude with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1962 and was awarded a teaching fellowship at Georgetown University. He attended Yale University on a scholarship sponsored by the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO), joining USNO in 1963. In 1969 he received a PhD in Astronomy from Yale, with a dissertation on lunar occultations. Van Flandern worked at the USNO until 1983, first becoming Chief of the Research Branch and later becoming Chief of the Celestial Mechanics Branch of the Nautical Almanac Office.

He became an expert on refining the lunar orbit from timings of lunar occultations, then the best observations for that purpose. He encouraged observations by providing observers with predictions of occultations for their locations. He designed a cable system connecting all observers timing a grazing occultation, to record their observations at a central station. After a 1964 success, four amateur astronomical societies built similar cable systems.

Scientific work

Van Flandern's prediction that some asteroids have natural satellites, which was rejected by the mainstream scientific community, was proven correct in 1993.

He and Henry Fliegel developed an algorithm to calculate a Julian date from a Gregorian date that would fit on a single IBM card. They published this in a paper, "A machine algorithm for processing calendar dates" in 1968 in the Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery. This was used in countless business applications worldwide.

With Kenneth Pulkkinen, he published "Low precision formulae for planetary positions", in Ap. J. Supp. in 1979. The paper set a record for the number of reprints requested from that journal.

Van Flandern expressed his views of the future of science to Science Digest magazine:

As science progresses we will eventually unravel the mystery of our origins, and the solution will come sooner if our minds are prepared to accept the truth when it is found, however fantastic it may be. If we are guided by our reason and our scientific method, if we let the Universe describe its wonder to us, rather than telling it how it ought to be, then we will soon come to the answers we seek, perhaps even within our own lifetimes.

In latter years, Van Flandern advocated inquiry into astronomy theories which he felt were consistent with the principles of science but were not otherwise supported because they conflicted both with observations and verified theories. He espoused 10 principles for assessing ideas and dubbed theories in compliance as "Deep Reality Physics."

Non-mainstream science and beliefs

Speed of gravity

In his article, "The speed of gravity—What the experiments say" he affirmed that laboratory, solar system, and astrophysical experiments for the speed of gravity yield a lower limit of 2x10^10 c.

This article was commented on by Marsch and Nissim-Sabat (followed by a reply by Van Flandern.) Steve Carlip wrote another comment analyzing the issue of aberration, and concluded that aberration was not only compatible with faster-than-light propagations (as claimed by Van Flandern), but also with speed of light propagations:

In the absence of direct measurements of propagation speed, observations must be filtered through theory, and different theoretical assumptions lead to different deductions. In particular, while the observed absence of aberration is consistent with instantaneous propagation (with an extra interaction somehow added on to explain the gravitational radiation reaction), it is also consistent with the speed-of-light propagation predicted by general relativity.

In a subsequent paper Van Flandern and Jean-Pierre Vigier claimed to have found mistakes in Carlip's paper in his discussion of electromagnetic interactions and extended the discussion to quantum theory as well. Other non-mainstream authors made similar claims.

However, those claims were not accepted by the majority of the scientific community, whose opinion is that the analysis of general-relativity experts such as Steve Carlip and others are correct, i.e. that the speed of gravitational as well as electromagnetic propagation is that of light.

Le Sage's theory of gravitation

Van Flandern attempted to rehabilitate Le Sage's theory of gravitation, according to which gravity is the result of a flux of invisible "ultra-mundane corpuscles" (c-gravitons) impinging on all objects from all directions at superluminal speeds. He gave public lectures claiming that this flux could be a source of limitless energy, which he believed could be used as a means of propulsion for space vehicles ("useful for getting around in the galaxy").

Face on Mars

Van Flandern was a prominent advocate of the belief that certain geological features seen on Mars, especially the "face at Cydonia", are not of natural origin, but were produced by intelligent extra-terrestrial life, probably the inhabitants of a major planet once located where the asteroid belt presently exists, and which Van Flandern believed had exploded 3.2 million years ago. He gave lectures on the subject, and at the conclusion of the lectures he described his overall conception:

"We've shown conclusively that at least some of the artifacts on the surface of Mars were artificially produced, and the evidence indicates they were produced approximately 3.2 million years ago, which is when Planet V exploded. Mars was a moon of Planet V, and we speculate that the Builders created the artificial structures as theme parks and advertisements to catch the attention of space tourists from Planet V (much as we may do on our own Moon some day, when lunar tourism becomes prevalent), or perhaps they are museums of some kind. Remember that the Face at Cydonia was located on the original equator of Mars. The Builder's civilization ended 3.2 million years ago. The evidence suggests that the explosion was anticipated, so the Builders may have departed their world, and it produced a massive flood, because Planet V was a water world. It is a coincidence that the face on Mars is hominid, like ours, and the earliest fossil record on Earth of hominids is the "Lucy" fossil from 3.2 million years ago. There have been some claims of earlier hominid fossils, but Lucy is the earliest that is definite. So I leave you with the thought that there may be a grain of truth in The War of the Worlds, with the twist that WE are the Martians.

"Face on Mars" is listed the number four in an astronomers ranking of astronomical pseudo-science topics

Publications

Van Flandern authored a book, Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets: Paradoxes Resolved, Origins Illuminated, in which he rejected and offered replacements for the fundamental theories of modern physics (especially special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics), and challenged prevailing notions regarding dark matter, the big bang, and solar system formation, and advocated the theory that the asteroid belt consists of the remains of an exploded planet. He issued newsletters, papers, and maintained a website devoted to his ideas, which have not found acceptance within the mainstream scientific community.

Van Flandern published the Meta Research Bulletin which reported the newest discoveries and how they presented difficulties to accepted astronomical theories, such as the Big Bang and planetary formation. The Bulletin claimed mainstream scientists preferred making ad hoc corrections to the theories rather than acknowledge fundamental difficulties that might jeopardize their funding.

A list of his main scientific publications is available through Scholar.

Awards and honors

In 1974, his essay, "A Determination of the Rate of Change of G", was awarded second place by The Gravity Foundation.

In 2009, asteroid 52266 was named in honor of Van Flandern because:

predicted and comprehensively analyzed lunar occultations at the U.S. Naval Observatory in the 1970s. In 1979 he published pioneering papers on the dynamics of binary minor planets. He helped improve GPS accuracies and established Meta Research to support alternative cosmological ideas.

See also

• Criticism of relativity theory

References

1. Obituary
2. "Obituary". Sequim Gazette. 21 January 2009.
3. Cleveland Plain Dealer October 8, 1957 "Moonwatch Team Here Gets Set" page 5
4. The Pharos-Tribune and Logansport Press August 9, 1959 "Still Keeping Watch" Logansport, IN page 19
5. Xavier University News November 5, 1960 Mike Rogers "Satellite Spies Situate Tracking Station on Logan" page 1
6. Kingsport News May 17, 1961 "Reports Activity" page 10
7. The Anderson Herald May 17, 1961 "Cincy Moonwatchers Report on Satellites" page 2
8. Xavier University News May 4, 1962 "Tom Van Flandern Given Fellowship" page 9
9. David Dunham (KinetX, Inc.), Victor Slabinski (U.S. Naval Observatory) (2011). "BAAS Obituary".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. T. S. Baskett (1963). "U.S. Naval Observatory Report". Astronomical Journal. 68 (9): 672, 674. Bibcode:1963AJ.....68..649M. doi:10.1086/109195.
11. Gart Westerhout, Charles K. Roberts (1984). "U. S. Naval Observatory Report". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 17: 457. Bibcode:1985BAAS...17..457.
12. ""Meta" Researcher Champions New Funding Sources for Independent Science". APS News. 5 (4). April 1996.
13. USNO Staff Directory for Nautical Almanac Office, December, 1976
14. Colin Keay (September 1993). "Another Revolution in Physics. Maybe?". Australian & New Zealand Physicist. 30 (9): 230.
15. van Flandern, T. C. (1979). "Gravitation and the expansion of the Earth". Nature. 278 (5707): 821. Bibcode:1979Natur.278..821V. doi:10.1038/278821a0.
16. USNO Staff Directory for Nautical Almanac Office, November, 1977
17. David Dunham (KinetX, Inc.), Victor Slabinski (U.S. Naval Observatory) (2011). "BAAS Obituary".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v374/n6525/abs/374783a0.html
19. David Dunham (KinetX, Inc.), Victor Slabinski (U.S. Naval Observatory) (2011). "BAAS Obituary".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
20. David Dunham (KinetX, Inc.), Victor Slabinski (U.S. Naval Observatory) (2011). "BAAS Obituary".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
21. Science Digest April, 1982
22. Physics has its Principles
23. Vanflandern, T (1998). "The speed of gravity ? What the experiments say". Physics Letters A. 250 (1–3): 1. Bibcode:1998PhLA..250....1V. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(98)00650-1.
24. Marsh, Gerald E; Nissim-Sabat, Charles (1999). "Comment on "The speed of gravity"". Physics Letters A. 262 (2–3): 257. Bibcode:1999PhLA..262..257M. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(99)00675-1.
25. Van Flandern, Tom (1999). "Reply to comment on "The speed of gravity"". Physics Letters A. 262 (2–3): 261. Bibcode:1999PhLA..262..261V. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(99)00676-3.
26. Carlip, S (2000). "Aberration and the Speed of Gravity". Phys. Lett. A. 267 (2–3): 81–87. arXiv:gr-qc/9909087. Bibcode:2000PhLA..267...81C. doi:10.1016/S0375-9601(00)00101-8.
27. Van Flandern, Tom; Vigier, Jean-Pierre (2002). Foundations of Physics. 32 (7): 1031. doi:10.1023/A:1016530625645. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
28. Chubykalo, Andrew E; Smirnov-Rueda, Roman (1996). "Action at a distance as a full-value solution of Maxwell equations: The basis and application of the separated-potentials method". Physical Review E. 53 (5): 5373. arXiv:hep-th/9510052. Bibcode:1996PhRvE..53.5373C. doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.53.5373.
29. Stefanovich, Eugene V (2002). "Is Minkowski Space-Time Compatible with Quantum Mechanics?". Foundations of Physics. 32 (5): 673. doi:10.1023/A:10160528252573.
30. See for example the Feynman lectures on electro-magnetics, and Carlip's articles on the speed of gravity).
31. Jeffery D. Kooistra (July–August, 1999). "Conference on Future Energy". Infinite Energy Magazine (26). {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) The summary of Van Flandern's talk at the Infinite Energy conference states "Van Flandern gave a talk entitled 'On a Complete Theory of Gravity and Free Energy'. For the free energy enthusiast, the implications of gravity being particulate and perhaps blockable are obvious. Block or deflect the c-gravitons raining down from the sky and up you go into space. Turn off the blocking shield and recover the energy you've gained, for free, as you fall back to Earth."
32. "Dr. Thomas Van Flandern - MUFON-LA (1 of 1)". youtube.
33. http://www.metaresearch.org/solar%20system/cydonia/proof_files/proof.asp | title = Proof that the Cydonia Face on Mars is Artificial | Publisher = Metaresearch.org
34. "Mysterious Mars". youtube.
35. "Astronomical Pseudo-Science: A Skeptic's Resource List". Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
36. Tom Van Flandern. Dark Matter, Missing Planets and New Comets: Paradoxes Resolved, Origins Illuminated. North Atlantic Books (Berkeley, CA 1993 and 1999). ISBN 978-1556432682.
37. David Dunham (KinetX, Inc.), Victor Slabinski (U.S. Naval Observatory) (2011). "BAAS Obituary".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
38. N/A (2010). "Tom van Flandern Google Scholar". Google Scholar.
39. Tom Van Flandern (1974). "A Determination of the Rate of Change of G" (PDF). Gravity Research Foundation.
40. F. Richard Stephenson (22 February 1979). "A modern look at ancient eclipses". New Scientist. 81 (1143): 265. ISSN 0262-4079.
41. http://www.gravityresearchfoundation.org/winners_year.html
42. For a time during the mid-1970s, Van Flandern believed that lunar observations gave evidence of variation in Newton's gravitational constant G, consistent with a speculative idea that had been put forward by Paul Dirac. Years later, with new data available, Van Flandern himself admitted his findings were not significant. It was contradicted by more accurate findings based on radio measurements with the Viking landers. Clifford Will (1993). Was Einstein Right?: putting general relativity to the test (2 ed.). Basic Books. p. 175-. ISBN 0-465-09086-9.
43. "Citation for 52266". Minor Planet Circulars (65123).

External links

• Official website
• American Astronomical Society obituary
• Meta Research, Inc., GuideStar
• Onpedia article on Van Flandern
• Google Scholar on Tom Van Flandern

Template:Persondata

• American astronomers
• Fringe physics
• 1940 births
• 2009 deaths