Latest astronomer Stories

Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (June 21, 1863 - October 3, 1932) was a German astronomer and pioneer of astrophotography. He is accredited with the discovery of a large quantity of asteroids. Heidelberg, Germany was his birthplace. He received his PhD at the University of Heidelberg in 1888, and in 1890 he took employment in that institution. Beginning in 1891, Wolf discovered more than 200 asteroids with the Bruce double-astrograph, while working at the Landessternwarte...

Carina (keel of a ship) Constellation -- Location: Mostly Southern Hemisphere, low on the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere; Coordinates: Right Ascension: 09h; Declination: -60; Source: Modern Constellation by astronomer Abbe Nicholas de Lacaille, from Argo Navis; Greek mythology, also Egyptian and Indian Carina means the keel or bottom of a ship. This constellation was originally part of a larger pattern representing an entire sailing ship. A ship pattern was recognized by several...

Planet Pluto -- Pluto is the ninth and smallest planet of our solar system. It was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona on February 18, 1930 (although the body was first photographed on March 19, 1915). Tombaugh was searching for a "Planet X" to explain the orbit of Neptune; further analysis, with seven decades more data about Neptune's position, has resolved the perceived anomaly without need for an additional gravitational pull on Neptune....