Short Biography of Titan's Discoverer Huygens
Christiaan Huygens was born on 14 April 1629 in The Hague, The Netherlands, as a son of Constantijn Huygens, diplomat and poet, and Suzanne van Baerle, daughter of a merchant. He studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden and the College of Orange at Breda.
In 1651 he published his first paper, i.e. about the quadrature of the cone. He established his name as a mathematician by the paper De circuli magnitudini inventa. Thereafter, his interests took him to the mechanics, optics and astronomy.
In March 1655 he directed his twelve-feet telescope towards Saturn and discovered a moon (Titan) and later also the famous Saturn's ring, which Galileo Galilei earlier had referred to as Saturn's ear. These two discoveries impressed his life until his death.
He wrote:
Ingenii vivent monumenta, inscriptaque coelo nomina victuri post mea facta canent.
(These are a sign of my intelligence, and validate the names that I wrote on the sky, after my death) (cited from C. D. Andriesse: Titan kan niet slapen, Uitgeverij Contact, Amsterdam/Antwerpen, 1994)
From 1666 to 1681 he headed the new founded Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris as Director. His further academic successes include the formulation of the impact law, the pendulum, the centrifugal force, the wave theory of the light (Huygens' principle), the double refraction of the light, observation of Mars' rotation and Orion nebula, and the invention of the Huygens ocular.
He spent his evening of life in Hofwijck near The Hague with the music theory and died on 8 July 1695.