Camille Flammarion

Born 26 February 1842, Flammarion turned French astronomy outward — not just toward specialists but toward anyone who'd look up. He wrote more than fifty books, mixing rigorous popular science with early science fiction novels that imagined life beyond Earth. In 1882 he launched L'Astronomie, a magazine that ran for decades, and maintained his own observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge where he worked until his death on 3 June 1925. The same man who charted the stars also published extensively on psychical research, convinced the universe held more than physics could yet explain.