18 Facts About Camille Flammarion

Camille Flammarion was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research and related topics.

Camille Flammarion was the brother of Ernest Flammarion, the founder of the Groupe Flammarion publishing house.

Camille Flammarion was a founder and the first president of the Societe astronomique de France, which originally had its own independent journal, BSAF, which was first published in 1887.

Camille Flammarion believed in 1907 that a seven-tailed comet was heading toward Earth.

Camille Flammarion has been described as an "astronomer, mystic, and storyteller" who was "obsessed by life after death, and on other worlds, and [who] seemed to see no distinction between the two".

Camille Flammarion was influenced by Jean Reynaud and his Terre et ciel, which described a religious system based on the transmigration of souls believed to be reconcilable with both Christianity and pluralism.

Camille Flammarion was convinced that souls after the physical death pass from planet to planet and progressively improve at each new incarnation.

Camille Flammarion's influence was great, not just on the popular thought of his day, but on later writers with similar interests and convictions.

Arthur Conan Doyle's The Poison Belt, published 1913, has a lot in common with Camille Flammarion's supposed worries that the tail of Halley's Comet would be poisonous for earth life.

Camille Flammarion assumed the red color on the planet's surface was either exposure of the interior of the soil, or because of red vegetation.

Sensation-seeking papers chose to quote only the latter part, leading to the widespread misconception that Camille Flammarion actually believed it.

Camille Flammarion produced in his book alleged levitation photographs of a table and an impression of a face in putty.

Camille Flammarion noted that the impressions of faces in putty were always of Palladino's face and could have easily been made, and she was not entirely clear from the table in the levitation photographs.

Camille Flammarion believed in the survival of the soul after death but wrote that mediumship had not been scientifically proven.

Camille Flammarion believed that telepathy could explain some paranormal phenomena.

Camille Flammarion wrote that he believed in telepathy, etheric doubles, the stone tape theory and "exceptionally and rarely the dead do manifest" in hauntings.

Camille Flammarion was the first to suggest the names Triton and Amalthea for moons of Neptune and Jupiter, respectively, although these names were not officially adopted until many decades later.

George Gamow cited Camille Flammarion as having had a significant influence on his childhood interest in science.