Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt

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Representation of Christ, painted by Goldschmidt

Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt (born June 17, 1802 in Frankfurt am Main , † September 10, 1866 in Fontainebleau ) was a German-French astronomer and painter .

Life

Goldschmidt was the son of a Jewish businessman in Frankfurt. He initially worked in his father's company, but then turned to painting , which he studied and practiced in Paris.

In 1847 he shifted his field of activity to astronomy and discovered fourteen asteroids of about 70 to 280 km in size from the windows of his attic apartment between 1852 and 1861 .
He replaced the astronomer John Russel Hind as the “ record holder ” (10 asteroids from 1847–1854). After him it brought Karl Theodor Robert Luther to 24 copies (1852–1890), the American CHF Peters to 48 (1861–1889) and the Austrian Johann Palisa to 123 asteroids (1874–1923).

Probably the most interesting of Goldschmidt's asteroids is also his smallest: (44) Nysa from 1857. For its size of 70 km, it is strikingly bright ( albedo 0.55) and has a yellowish color, which is ascribed to the mineral enstatite . The disc-like shape of the celestial body, which rotates in 6½ hours, creates a strange light curve , as it had only been detected on a minor planet until then .

In April 1861, Hermann Goldschmidt published the discovery of a ninth moon of Saturn , of which he indicated an orbit between Titan and Hyperion , and named it Chiron. But the discovery was never confirmed by another astronomer, which is why the name was later assigned to the unusual asteroid comet (2060) Chiron . The "official" 9th moon named Phoebe was discovered in 1898 by William Henry Pickering by means of photography. It is Saturn's outermost moon and was photographed by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft in June 2004 .

Hermann Goldschmidt was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1861 for his achievements . Furthermore, the asteroid (1614) Goldschmidt and the moon crater Goldschmidt were named after him. On the Paris commemorative coin from 1868, which was minted on the occasion of the hundredth asteroid, he is depicted alongside three other multiple discoverers.

Discovered asteroids

Surname discovery
(21) Lutetia November 15, 1852
(32) Pomona October 26, 1854
(36) Atalante October 5, 1855
(40) Harmonia March 31, 1856
(41) Daphne May 22, 1856
(44) Nysa May 27, 1857
(45) Eugenia June 27, 1857
(48) Doris September 19, 1857
(49) Pales September 19, 1857
(52) Europe February 4, 1858
(54) Alexandra September 10, 1858
(56) Melete September 9, 1857
(61) Danaë September 9, 1860
(70) Panopaea May 5, 1861

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Goldschmidt, Hermann Mayer Salomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Franco-German astronomer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1802
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1866
Place of death Fontainebleau