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MILUTIN
MILANKOVIC (1879 - 1958)
120 years since he was born and 90 years since he entered
the Belgrade University
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year 1999 is important for its double jubilee regarding our
great scientist Milutin Milankovic. Let us remind ourselves
of those two dates: on May the 28th, 1879, exactly 120 years
ago, in the village of Dalj, Milutin was born to Jelisaveta,
nee Muacevic, and Milan Milankovic as the eldest child in
the family, and on October the 3rd, 1909, 90 years ago, Milankovic
left Vienna and started his career as a professor at the Belgrade
university. Milankovic
was by profession a civil engineer, an astronomer, a mathematician,
a geo-physicist, and, above all, the founder of modern climatology
and climate modelling. |
Milutin
Milankovic |
Exploring the influence of astronomical factors on climate changes
in the Earth's geological past, Milankovic explained the periodical
forming, developing and disappearing of the glacial phases during
the past 600,000 years. Applying mathematical models and using the
findings previously discovered by Ademar, Kroll, and others, with
great help and encouragement from his colleague, the astronomer
Vojislav Miskovic, Milankovic proved that the precession, change
of the incline of the axis of rotation, and the Earth's eccentric
path round the Sun have been dominant long-period factors influencing
climate changes during the geological past. However, that is not
the only thing Milankovic is famous for. His masterpiece "The
cannon of the amount of sunlight on the Earth and its application
on the problem of ice-ages" is the most significant work of
the Serbian science in the 20th century. His evaluation of the amount
of sunlight and the annual average temperature on the surface of
Mars and its lower layers of atmosphere has been proved by recent
cosmic research. Milankovic also made the most precise calendar
so far. The calendar would be absolutely precise until the year
2800. Although his calendar needed no correction in the next 28,800
years, it has never been accepted worldwide. |
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