Giuseppe Piazzi
(born July 16, 1746, Ponte di Valtellina, Lombardy [Italy], Habsburg
crown
land?died July 22, 1826, Naples) was an Italian
astronomer
who discovered (January 1, 1801) and named the first
asteroid
, or “minor planet,”
Ceres
.
Piazzi became a Theatine priest about 1764 and a professor of
theology
in
Rome
in 1779, and in 1780 he was appointed professor of higher
mathematics
at the Academy of Palermo. Later, with the aid of the viceroy of
Sicily
, he founded the Observatory of
Palermo
. There he produced his great catalog of the positions of 7,646 stars and demonstrated that most
stars
are in motion relative to the
Sun
. There also he discovered Ceres and the high
proper motion
of the important
double star
61 Cygni
.
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