David Fabricius facts for kids

David Fabricius (born March 9, 1564 – died May 7, 1617) was a German pastor. He made important discoveries in early astronomy with his oldest son, Johannes Fabricius. They used telescopes for their observations.

David Fabricius was born in Esens, Lower Saxony. He studied at the University of Helmstedt starting in 1583. He then became a pastor in small towns near his home in Frisia. This area is now parts of northwest Germany and northeast Netherlands. He served in Resterhafe from 1584 and in Osteel from 1603. Like many Protestant ministers of his time, he was also interested in science. His special interest was astronomy. Fabricius even wrote letters to the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Discoveries in Space

David Fabricius made two big discoveries that helped us understand the universe better.

The Winking Star

In August 1596, Fabricius discovered the first known variable star that changed its brightness regularly. He called it Mira, which means "the wonderful" or "the astonishing." At first, he thought it was a "nova," a new star that suddenly appears very bright. This was because people didn't know about stars that changed their brightness over time.

However, in 1609, he saw Mira get bright again! This showed that it wasn't a nova that appeared once and faded. Instead, it was a new kind of object in the sky that brightened and dimmed over and over. This was a very important discovery for astronomy.

Sunspots and the Sun's Spin

Two years later, in 1611, David's son Johannes Fabricius came home from university. He brought with him some new telescopes. They pointed these telescopes at the Sun. Even though it was hard to look directly at the Sun, they noticed dark spots on its surface. These were sunspots. Some people in East Asian countries might have seen sunspots without a telescope before. David Fabricius himself might have noticed them a few years earlier too.

To protect their eyes and get a better view, the father and son invented a special way to observe the Sun. They used a camera obscura with their telescope. This projected the Sun's image safely. They watched the spots move across the Sun's surface. The spots would appear on one side, move across, disappear, and then reappear on the first side after some time. This showed that the Sun was spinning on its axis. People had thought the Sun might spin before, but this was the first real proof.

Johannes Fabricius wrote a book about their discoveries in June 1611. It was called Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun. Sadly, Johannes died young at age 29. His book was not widely known. Other scientists like Christoph Scheiner and Galileo Galilei also discovered sunspots a few months later. Their findings became more famous.

A Sudden End

David Fabricius's life ended suddenly in 1617.

His Legacy

Even today, copies of a map of Frisia that David Fabricius made in 1589 still exist. He is also mentioned in Jules Verne's famous 1865 book, From the Earth to the Moon. In the story, Fabricius is said to have seen people on the Moon through his telescope. But this part is just fiction from Verne's imagination.

A large crater on the Moon is named after David Fabricius. It is called Fabricius and is about 79 kilometers (49 miles) wide. In 1895, a monument was built to honor him. It stands in the churchyard at Osteel, where he was a pastor from 1603 until his death in 1617.