约翰·埃德伦1906—1993

生平

埃德伦于1906年11月2日出生在瑞典古松。他于1926年在北雪平中学毕业，同年进入乌普萨拉大学就读。他在三个学期后获得学士学位，并于1934年以关于周期系统开始时元素的光谱和能量的论文获得博士学位。

他在太阳光谱中发现了不明光谱线，并推测这些光谱线可能来自一种至今仍未发现的化学元素，称为𰛂。埃德伦后来发现这些光谱线来自于多重离子化的铁（Fe-XIV）。他的发现并没有立即被接受，因为所谓的电离需要数百万度的温度。后来这样的日冕温度得到验证。他在分析沃尔夫-拉叶星的光谱方面也有重要的贡献。

埃德伦于1944年至1973年间担任隆德大学教授。他于1947年获选为瑞典皇家科学院院士。他在1945年因为解决日冕之谜而获得英国皇家天文学会金质奖章，1946年因为研究极紫外线而获得霍华德·N·波茨奖章，1968年获得美国国家科学院亨利·德雷伯奖章。

Bengt Edlén (2 November 1906, Gusum – 10 February 1993, Lund) was a Swedish astronomer who specialized in spectroscopy. He was the first to identify the source of unknown spectral lines in the solar corona, which allowed for early calculations of the corona's temperature.

Biography

Bengt Edlén was born on 2 November 1906 in Gusum, Sweden. He graduated from high school in Norrköping in 1926 and entered the Uppsala University the same year. He was awarded his bachelor's degree after three semester and graduated with a PhD in 1934 with his thesis about the spectra and energy of the elements in the beginning of the periodic system.

He received international fame after finding unidentified spectral lines in the Sun's spectrum which were speculatively believed to originate from a hitherto unidentified chemical element termed coronium. Edlén later showed that those lines are from multiply ionized iron (Fe-XIV). His discovery was not immediately accepted, since the alleged ionization required a temperature of millions of degrees. Later such solar corona temperatures were verified. He also made an important contribution in analyzing spectra of Wolf–Rayet stars.

Edlén was professor at Lund University from 1944 to 1973. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1947. He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 1945 for the solution of the Corona Mystery, the Howard N. Potts Medal in 1946 for researches in the extreme ultraviolet, and the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1968.