Johann Palisa

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Johann Palisa (around 1900)

Johann Palisa (born December 6, 1848 in Troppau (Opava), Austrian Silesia , † May 2, 1925 in Vienna ) was an Austrian astronomer . He became known through the discovery of 123 asteroids (minor planets) and through the publication of star atlases .

Life

Palisa began his astronomical activity in 1872 as head of the Austrian naval observatory Pola in the south of Istria , today Pula , Croatia. Although there was only a telescope available to him in addition to the astrometric instruments , the lens of which had a relatively small diameter of 15 cm, he was soon able to discover a few asteroids. Palisa was the first astronomer to do this for more than fifty minor planets.

In contrast to other researchers, however, he was more concerned with the "securing" and reliable orbit determination of the newly found celestial bodies. Many of them were lost before the orbit elements became known due to a lack of coordination of the observations.

In 1880 he switched to an assistant position at the Vienna University Observatory in order to be able to measure on what was then the world's largest telescope . From here he reformed the calculation of the orbit of asteroids on an international basis. He located the main or asteroid belt (main belt) in which revolve most asteroids at 2.2 to 3.6  astronomical units and found some to Mars -reaching railways. In 1885 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Palisa-Wolf-Sternatlas, Orion-Südwest sheet

Together with Max Wolf in Heidelberg he introduced new techniques, including a. the first star atlas for search and identification, but also for astrophysics purposes. Later, the large Palisa Wolf Star Atlas , published in 1900, was created using astrophotography, which covered the starry sky visible in Central Europe with 210 sheets. This not only facilitated the discovery of new minor planets , but also their retrieval and orbit determination .

Palisa also carried out lunar and solar research, e.g. B. on the 1883 expedition to the solar eclipse in Tahiti , and participated in the search for the hypothetical planet Vulcanus near the sun . He published two star catalogs with 4700 exact locations  - an important basis for railway safety, for which he received the prize of the Paris Academy in 1906 .

The astronomer Friedrich Bidschof was his son-in-law.

Today's meaning

One of these very precisely edited catalogs with over 1200 fundamental stars contributed to the then urgently needed astrometric reference system (see FK3 and Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch ), which to this day is dependent on good earlier data.

Five of its asteroids are still research topics today. The second " Amor Planetoid" (719) Albert (1911) after (433) Eros, which was discovered by Witt in 1898, was lost after Palisa's discovery, but was found again in 2000 on the Spacewatch telescope (Arizona) after nine years of search. It is now used for subsequent analyzes of Jupiter orbital disturbances ; with the earth it has an unusual 4:17 resonance of the orbital times.

Two discoveries of Palisa were visited by space probes : (253) Mathilde von NEAR 1997 and (243) Ida von Galileo 1993.
(216) Cleopatra was surveyed with radar antennas. It turned out that the asteroid has an elongated shape that is reminiscent of a dog's bone.
(140) Siwa (Palisas no. 3, 1874 Pola) was originally in a few years by the ESA probe Rosetta on its way to comet be visited Wirtanen. In the meantime, however, the Rosetta mission has been rescheduled.

See also list of asteroids

Grave of Johann Palisa in the Vienna Central Cemetery

As part of the ESA summer school in Alpbach in 2008, a possible sample-return mission design for Cleopatra was named after its discoverer in honor of Palisa , whose mission goal is to bring possible samples containing magnets back to earth after a successful landing and drilling with a space probe from Cleopatra .

Palisa was buried in an honorary grave of the City of Vienna in the Vienna Central Cemetery (33A-1-29). In 1929 the Palisagasse in Vienna- Favoriten was named after him.

The lunar crater Palisa and the asteroid (914) Palisana are named after Johann Palisa.

literature

Web links

Commons : Johann Palisa  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Report on the observations received during the total solar eclipse of May 6, 1883  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Palisagasse, Vienna 10
personal data
SURNAME Palisa, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Troppau (Opava), Austrian Silesia
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1925
Place of death Vienna