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MILUTIN MILANKOVIC (1879-1958)

Serbian genius of world science, astronomer and mathematician, founder of climatology and climate modeling, the creator of the most modern calendar in the world and the greatest traveler through space and time.

Milutin Milankovic the scientist whose theory of ice ages is accepted in the world and confirmed by the universal latest research. Born in Dalj, and technical studies done in Vienna, as one of the best students of his generation. In Austria, he worked as an engineer, distinguishing himself with his constructions and some innovations, and then he was coming to Belgrade, where he became professor of the university and worked until the end of his life. He produced works of lasting value and his name enrolled among the stars. Russian scientists were around the moon when they named Milutin Milankovic a crater on the far side of the moon, which was adopted as international recognition. Accuracy of Milankovic’s calculations are the greatest proof of his theory, which he called the Canon of insolation. He was vice president of the Serbian Academy of Science, and yet relatively unknown in his country, which he endured the gentlemanly way, in silence, with dignity. He had a brilliant writing style. Most important are his works: The Canon of insolationof earth and its application to the ice ages; CelestialMechanics;History of astronomical science; Through Space and Centuries; Through thekingdom of science; Writings from the history of science, and more: Articles, speech andconversation; Memories, experiences and knowledge. His occupation was engineer, and by works he was astronomer and mathematician of outstanding quality. He was also remembered as a historian of science and witnessed the development of Serbian science in the first half of the twentieth century. Milankovic’s work Through the universe and the ages, first published in German in a large circulation, in which he was brilliant as a scientist. In this work he leads the reader on a very interesting way through the ancient Babylon, ancient Athens, to visit Aristotle and Archimedes, the Alexandrian Library and in visit to Cleopatra, and distant spaces. Milankovic’s important works include Mathematical theory of climate change; Astronomical Almanac ice ages and Millennia shift the Earth's poles. If Kepler and Newton's laws of motion of celestial bodies is the first law of the universe, then Solar radiation of Milankovic law's is the second law. Milankovic was the world's first who calculated solar radiation of the earth and all the planets of the solar system, which was confirmed as perfectly accurate. Milankovic’s mathematical theory of insolation was celebrated in 1995 in the whole world as one of the greatest achievements of human creativity of the twentieth century. Milankovic did not deal with science in order of which he lived, but lived in order to do science. Milutin Milankovic combines astronomy, mathematics, physics and geophysics with literature, history and philosophy in its own way. He also made, so far, the most accurate calendar in the world. He explained Aristarh’s learning about motions of the planets Fixed stars, reproducing Apollonius theorem epicyclic motion of the planets in the solar system. He proved that climate change is caused by astronomical causes, therefore the events on the earth are conducted according to the laws of heaven. In his research he was the world's first who applied the theory of climate. For him it is said, "If indeed the value of planets is defined by solar energy, then the value of Milankovic’s data is given by light that is passed on to generations. If only for a moment the light shone on our life path, Milankovic came in his travels.
As an astronomer, mathematician and geophysicist, Milankovic is above all in science, recognized as the founder of modern climatology and climate modeling. Working on the problem of the influence of astronomical factors on climate during the geological past of the earth, Milankovic has explained in an exact manner periods of beginning, development and retreat of glacial stages during the past 600,000 years. Milankovic proved that the inclination of the axis of rotation and eccentric orbits around the sun and earth longlasting dominant factors that influenced the change of climate in the geologic past.
His work "The Canon of Insolation of the earth and its application to the ice age" is the most significant work of Serbian science in the twentieth century, and the calculation of solar radiation and mean annual temperature of the Martian surface and lower layers of its atmosphere, it was proved later by space research and his calculations showed the absolute correctness.
Milankovic's calendar is so far the most accurate calendar made in human civilization. His calendar is based on eliminating the backlog of 13 days, how it brings the same level with the Gregorian calendar. Leap years in the Gregorian calendar are those that are divisible by four without remainder, including the centuries, the secular year. By Milankovic leap years are those divisible by 9 and the rest of the 2 or 6, and all other and secular, are prime years. In this way achieved a general accuracy and up to 2800 years would not have been any disagreements with the Gregorian calendar. Specifically, the 2800 year of the Gregorian calendar has a leap year, according to Milankovic not. According to Milankovic, the duration of the solar year amounts to 365.24222 days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 48 seconds, which is two seconds longer than the so-called. "Tropical year". This means that the accumulation of differences of one day takes time from 43 200 years. This Milankovic's calendar, unfortunately, even to this day is not real, although it is Milankovic's calendar adopted at Pan-Orthodox Congress, 30 May 1923 in Istanbul.
Milankovic is also one of the authors of methods of tectonic plates, which are applied in geology, and the movement of continents shown in the geologic past. Much later, modern geophysical measurements, satellite geodesy and radio signals, have been approved for the accuracy of this theory.
Milutin Milankovic is a genius, whom the world has definitely recognized since 10 December 1976, when the magazine "Science" published the result of an extensive five-year project, whose main task was to confirm or refute Milankovic's calculation. When it has been confirmed that the variations of the earth's orbit is actually the "pacemaker" of ice ages, all previous doubts have disappeared, and our genius was finally recognized and deserved a place in the scientific elite of the world. Milankovic's work became the basis of many studies because it touches upon the problems of many scientific disciplines.
The importance of Milankovic's works speaks to the fact that in 1982 in the United States organized the symposium on "Milankovic and climate", which brought together over 90 of the most eminent scientists from around the world. All of them gathered the name and work of our great men, who were interested in the interaction of the sun and the earth. How are concealed in all this, and other elements shall serve the fact that for a given set of greatest interest shown and the organization of NATO and even had a financier of the same.

Milankovic died on 12 December 1958. He left behind a series of textbooks, and in particular they have been used in Celestial mechanics, objects that he held at the Belgrade University from his arrival in 1909 until his retirement in 1955. For many years cherished the good word and that is why his works, such as "History of Astronomical Sciences", "Through the realm ofscience", "Technology in the ancient ages" and "Science and technology throughout the ages" are the best popular science texts in Serbian , and his novel "Through Space and Centuries" has become a trademark of Milankovic. Today he is recognized by all that was the biggest travel through space and time. His memoirs,"Memories, experiences and knowledge" fully reflect what Milankovic was like as a man and as a scientist.
Scientific achievements of Milankovic are equal to the achievements of Tesla, Pupin, Cvijic, Mike Alas or Pancic, as well as many scientists of the world. At the same time, it is evident that our most cited scientist is Milankovic, which over time has yet constantly growing.
Working on the problem of the influence of astronomical factors on climate during the geological history of the Earth, Milankovic explained in an exact way the periods of creation, development and retreat of glacial stages during the past 600,000 years. Milankovic proved that the precession changes in the slope axis of rotation and eccentric orbits of the Earth around the Sun are dominant longlasting factors in changing the climate in the geologic past. He had to, of course, make the greatest contribution.
In 1988 in Perugia (Italy) organized a scientific seminar entitled "cyclo-stratigraphy”. It was officially inaugurated a new research method that basically has Milankovic's cycles of insolation, which shifts the rhythmic layers of rocks detected cooler and warmer cycles, through which pass our planet.
Across the world, unfortunately, Milankovic's work examines more than in our country, where he lived and worked tirelessly for almost half a century. Why is Milankovic in their country so little known and still largely left to individuals. Milankovic is a national treasure and as such he would have his rightful place. Medal "Milutin Milankovic '' European geophysical society has been awarded since 1993 at their annual meetings. It is reasonable, therefore, the question of which is then Milankovic world’s or ours, and most accurate response is: the world’s and our’s.
On the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of our great Milankovic in Belgrade, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) held a meeting in 2004, which was attended by world famous scientists and socializing during the four-day confirmed Milankovic’s greatest contribution to world science.
Aleksandar Petrovic, a member of the organization of the above meeting, wrote a book about Milankovic “Insolation and climate” "which was presented at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. For Milankovic he says: "What Newton is for the English people, Milankovic is for us."
Although Milankovic had a great contribution to engineering, where he achieved significant results, as he himself says, his "Canon of insolation is the second article in the Code of the universe and the first member of the Mathematical Principles of Isaac Newton." He reconstructed his curve of insolation rhythm of ice ages, showing that it is on our planet changed cyclically, which is due to astronomical factors that determine long-periodic motion of our planet and its relationship to the sun. Like Copernicus and Newton, he related the events of earth with heaven, and showed that the celestial events are the real cause of what is happening on Earth. While Newton was talking about gravitational movement of planets, Milankovic’s "Canon of insolation" is about thermodynamics and respect the planet to the sun. As there is no point on Earth where Milankovic’s “Insolation canon” is not confirmed, it virtually lifted him from the scientific framework and turned into a planetary phenomenon. He was the first, even in the early 20 century, to calculate temperature regimes on the Moon and planets in the inner solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars. His calculations are completely consistent with the results obtained from Mars cosmic probes that were sent there. This Milankovic managed to achieve the most that can be achieved in science, founded the scientific discipline and gave her cosmic dimension. His name bears toponyms on the Moon and Mars, and a small planet. NASA has officially ranked Milankovic among 15 the most important scientists of all time dealing with some of the Earth sciences.

SUMMARY of MILANKOVIC – LIFE and WORK

Milanković was born in Dalj 1879, attended the Technische Hochschule in Vienna (today Vienna University of Technology) where he graduated in Civil Engineering in 1902, as one of the best students in the generation and earned a doctorate in technical sciences in 1904. Later he worked in the then-famous firm of Adolf Baron Pittel Betonbau-Unternehmung in Vienna. He built dams, bridges, viaducts, aqueducts and other structures in reinforced concrete throughout the Austria-Hungary of the time. Milanković continued to practice civil engineering in Vienna until the autumn of 1909, when he was offered the chair of applied mathematics (rational mechanics, celestial mechanics, theoretical physics), University of Belgrade. The year 1909 marked a turning-point in his life. Although he continued to pursue his investigations of various technical problems pertaining to the applications of reinforced concrete, he concentrated more on the fundamental research. As early as 1912, his interests turned to solar climates and temperatures prevailing on the planets.

Life

Turbulent events took place as soon as he had settled down in Belgrade, when the BalkanWars (1912-1913) were followed by World War I. When the war broke out in 1914, he was interned by the Austro-Hungarian army in Nezsider and later in Budapest, where he was allowed to work in the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Throughout his internment in Budapest he devoted his time to the solar climates and temperatures on planets, and by the end of the war, he had finished a monograph which was published in 1920, in the publications of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, by Gauthiers-Villards in Paris, under the title Théorie mathématique des phénomènes thermiques produits par la radiation solaire (Mathematical theory of thermic phenomena caused by solar radiation).

The results set forth in this work won him a considerable reputation in the scientific world, notably for his "curve of insolation at the Earth's surface". This solar curve was not really accepted until 1924, when the great meteorologist and climatologist Wladimir Köppen with his son-in-law Alfred Wegener, introduced the curve in their work, entitled Climates of the geological past. After these first tributes, Milanković was invited, in 1927, to co-operate in two important publications: the first was a handbook on climatology (Handbuch der Klimatologie) and the second a handbook on geophysics (Gutenberg's Handbuch der Geophysik). The former, for which he wrote the introduction Mathematische Klimalehre und astronomische Theorie der Klimaschwankungen (Mathematical science of climate and astronomical theory of the variations of the climate), was published in 1930 in German, and in 1939 was translated into Russian. In it the theory of planetary climate is further developed with special reference to the Earth.

He created the leap year rule of the Revised Julian calendar, in use by many orthodox churches, which is more accurate than both Julian and Gregorian calendars, the most accurate calendar ever designed in human civilization.

For the second textbook, Milanković wrote four sections developing and formulating his theory of the secular motion of the Earth's poles, and his theory of glacial periods (Milankovitch cycles), which was built on earlier work by James Croll. Fully aware that his theory of solar radiation had been successfully completed, and that the papers dealing with this theory were dispersed in separate publications, he decided to collect and publish them under a single cover. Thus, in 1941, on the eve of war in his country, the printing of his great work Kanon der Erdbestrahlung und seine Anwendung auf das Eiszeitenproblem (Canon of Insolation of the Earth and Its Application to the Problem of the Ice Ages) was completed, 626 pages in quarto, in Cemian, issued in the publications of the Royal Serbian Academy. This work was translated into English under the title Canon of Insolation of the Ice-Age Problem, in 1969 by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations, published by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Objections were raised in the 1950s against the Milanković theory of ice ages; these objections came mainly from meteorologists who claimed that the insolation changes due to the changes in the Earth's orbital elements were too small to significantly perturb the climate system. However, in the late 1960s and 1970s, investigation of the deep-sea sediments brought widespread acceptance of Milanković's view, since the periodicity discovered (100,000 years) matched so closely with the longest orbital period.

Work

In addition to his scientific work, Milanković always showed great interest in the historical development of science. He wrote a textbook on the history of astronomy, and two books on a popular level: Through Space and Centuries fictionalized the development of astronomy while the other, entitled Through the Realm of Science, dealt with the development of exact sciences.

Milanković also published a three volume autobiography in Serbian, Recollection, Experiences and Vision, which never was translated. For this reason his son, Vasko Milanković, has completed a biography: My father, Milutin Milanković.

Milanković was elected a corresponding member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1920, a full member in 1924, a corresponding member of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1925, and a member of the German Academy of Naturalists "Leopoldine" in Halle; he was also a member of many scientific societies and related organizations, both in Yugoslavia and abroad.

Namings

• Milankovic crater on the far side of the Moon

• Milankovic - a 118km crater on Mars at 54.4N, 213.3E

• 1605 Milankovic - a minor planet.

Milutin Milankovic i Nikola Tesla

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