Publish or Procreate? One doesn’t lead to the other.

The Russian astronomer Wilhelm Struve, full name: Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, (1793-1864) completed 272 astronomical works and fathered a grand total of 18 children.

That’s a lot of baby von Struves! Some of his most recognized observations were of double stars.  He carried on the work begun by William Herschel, who discovered that many double stars were two stars revolving around each other.

Side note:

While both William and John Herschel (his son) observed many double stars, they didn’t record anywhere near as many as Struve, who measured the widths of a whopping 2714 double stars.

In contrast, his great-grandson, Otto Struve (1897-1963), the Russian-American astronomer, recognized for his contributions to stellar spectroscopy, produced 907 works (over 3 times as many as his great grandfather) and had zero children.

Apparently, having 18 children significantly reduces one’s ability to produce astronomy publications.