Josep Comas i Solà worked in astronomy at a period when the field was still deciding what counted as an answer.
Josep Comas i Solà was born at Barcelona in 1868. His recorded nationality is Spain. He was educated at University of Barcelona.
The nineteenth century professionalised science. Laboratories acquired budgets, universities acquired chairs, and for the first time a person could be a scientist by occupation rather than by inclination.
His working life was spent at Fabra Observatory.
His name is attached above all to discovery of the double star SOL 1. Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences and the least forgiving: its laboratory can be observed but never touched.
That the work was done from Spain matters to the story. Science has never been evenly distributed, and where a person is based has always shaped which problems are reachable and whose results get read.
His work was formally recognised with the Prix Jules Janssen and honorary member of the Physics Association (Frankfurt am Main, Germany).
What that record amounts to is a body of astronomy that later workers could build on without re-checking. That is the practical test of a scientific life, and it is a harder one than fame.
Josep Comas i Solà died in 1937, aged 69. What survives is not the reputation but the result: the part of astronomy that no longer has to be argued for.
Achievements
- Held posts at Fabra Observatory
- Educated at University of Barcelona
