Christiaan Huygens

Christiaan Huygens was born in Den Haag on April 14, 1629.

Huygens first studied Law in Leiden, but turned to Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

In 1655 he discovered the planet Saturn's moon Titan. He also examined Saturn's planetary rings, and in 1656 he found out what those rings are. In the same year he observed the Orion Nebula. Using his modern telescope he was able to divide the nebula into different stars. The brighter interior of the Orion Nebula is called the Huygens Region. He also discovered several interstellar nebulas and some double stars.

After Blaise Pascal encouraged him to do so, Huygens wrote the first book on probability theory, which was published in 1657.

He also worked on the construction of accurate clocks, suitable for naval navigation. In 1658 he published a book on this topic called Horologium. Huygens was elected member of the Royal Society in 1663. In the year 1666 Huygens moved to Paris where he hold a chair at the French Royal Society. Using the Parisian observatory which was completed in 1672, he made further astronomical observations.

He moved back to Den Haag in 1681 after serious illness and died there 14 years later on June 8, 1695.