Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (4 December 1821 – 16 March 1889), normally known as Wilhelm Tempel, was a German

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

who worked in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

until the outbreak of the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

in 1870, then later moved to Italy. Tempel was born at Niedercunnersdorf,

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. He was a prolific discoverer of

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

s, discovering or co-discovering 21 in all, including Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, now known to be the parent body of the

Leonid Leonid ( ; ; ) is a Slavic version of the given name Leonidas. The French version is Leonide. People with the name include: * Leonid Agutin (born 1968), Russian pop musician and songwriter * Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919), Russian playwright ...

meteor shower, and 9P/Tempel, the target of the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

probe '' Deep Impact'' in 2005. Other periodic comets that bear his name include

10P/Tempel 10P/Tempel, also known as Tempel 2, is a periodic Jupiter-family comet with a 5-year orbital period. It was discovered on July 4, 1873 by Wilhelm Tempel. At the perihelion passage on 2 August 2026 the solar elongation is calculated at 164 degree ...

and 11P/Tempel-Swift-LINEAR. In 1861, he was awarded the

Lalande Prize The Lalande Prize (French: ''Prix Lalande'' also known as Lalande Medal) was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 until 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences. The prize was endowed by astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1801 ...

. He won the Prix Valz for the year 1880. The

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

asteroid

3808 Tempel 38 may refer to: *38 (number) *38 BC *AD 38 *1938 *2038 Science * Strontium, an alkaline earth metal in the periodic table * 38 Leda, an asteroid in the asteroid belt Other uses *.38, a caliber of firearms and cartridges ** .38 Special, a re ...

and the lunar crater ''

Tempel Tempel (German or Dutch: ''temple'') may refer to: __NOTOC__ Surname *Wilhelm Tempel (1821–1889), German astronomer *Russel Tempel, American politician Nekpur Galla Mandi, Near Muni Mandir, Bareilly Uttar Pradesh 243001 Synagogues * Tempel Syna ...

'' are named after him.

References

External links

* *
W. Tempel
@

Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a digital library portal for researchers on astronomy and physics, operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. ADS maintains three bibliographic collections containing over 15 ...

1821 births 1889 deaths Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets * 19th-century German astronomers People from Görlitz (district) Recipients of the Lalande Prize Scientists from Saxony {{Germany-astronomer-stub