| Wang Sichao王思潮 | |||||||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Rong County, Guangxi, China | ||||||
| Death Place: | Nanjing, China | ||||||
| Alma Mater: | Peking University | ||||||
| Occupation: | Astronomer | ||||||
| Years Active: | 1963–2016 | ||||||
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Wang Sichao (; 1937 – 17 June 2016) was a Chinese astronomer and scholar.[1] Between 1963 and 1999, he was a researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing. Wang researched asteroids, meteors, comets, and unidentified flying objects.
Wang was born in 1937 in Rong County in Guangxi.[2] [3] His ancestral hometown is in Guangzhou in Guangdong.[2] In his youth, he attended the primary and secondary schools affiliated with Sun Yat-sen University as well as the secondary school affiliated with South China Normal University.[2] Wang attended the Peking University where he received an astrophysics degree from the Department of Geophysics.[2] [3]
Upon graduation, in 1963 Wang joined the Purple Mountain Observatory as a research intern.[2] He was promoted to an assistant research position, an associate researcher position, and then a researcher position.[2] He retired in 1999 from the observatory.[2] As the first promoter in China of conducting studies of Near-Earth objects and asteroid impact avoidance, Wang was a pioneer of Chinese meteorology research.[2]
Alongside Ouyang Ziyuan in 1976, Wang did in-depth studies of meteor showers that happened in Jilin.[2] [4] China News Service said Wang's research "achieved important results".[2] To conduct research where a meteor hit in Ningqiang County, he visited the Qin Mountains to retrieve samples.[2] Wang researched the falling ice in Wuxi.[2] Wang conducted research on comets for China.[2] In addition to studying Comet Hale–Bopp, he travelled to Australia with the astronomer Zhang Jiaxiang during Halley's Comet's 1986 apparition to collect information about it.[2] His research team correctly foresaw when a comet would collide in 1994.[2] Wang helped design and make a Near-Earth object telescope in Xuyi County.[2]
Wang began investigating unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in 1971.[3] Wang believed that extraterrestrial life exists, possesses anti-gravity technology and is benevolent, stating this during interviews with the media such as China Central Television.[5] On one occasion, the popular science writer Fang Zhouzi stated that Wang had not provided proof for his claims.[6] Through email, Wang reached out to people in China who had seen UFOs to work with them to investigate the UFOs.[2]
China News Service called him "a well-known astronomy education expert in China".[2] He taught about planetary science, Small Solar System bodies, meteorites, and the search for extraterrestrial life.[2] He wrote popular science books and frequently appeared on television shows.[2] During the Internet era, he started Sina Weibo and WeChat accounts through which he shared information about astronomy.[2]
To fund his child's or children's overseas education, Wang borrowed 300,000 yuan (US$).[4] He put on pause the self-funded Big Dipper Observation Award, which he had created in 2007 to raise awareness of UFOs, so that he could repay the education loan.[4]
Wang died on 17 June 2016 in Nanjing at the age of 77 after a cerebral haemorrhage.[2] His funeral was held on 19 June at the Nanjing Funeral Parlor in the Xitian Temple .[3]