Annibale de Gasparis (9 November 1819,

Bugnara Bugnara is a ''comune'' and village in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of central Italy. In 2007, it was designated as one of the most beautiful villages in Italy (i borghi più belli d'Italia), an association that notes sma ...

– 21 March 1892,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

; ) was an Italian

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

, known for discovering asteroids and his contributions to theoretical astronomy.

Biography

De Gasparis was born in 1819 in

to Angelo de Gasparis and Eleonora Angelantoni originally from

Tocco da Casauria Tocco da Casauria is a ''comune'' and town in the Province of Pescara in the Abruzzo region of Central Italy. The centre was known for centuries as simply Tocco, and the name "da Casauria" was added only after 1861. It rises on a hill between the ...

. Son of a doctor, he studied in the seminars of

Sulmona Sulmona ( nap, label= Abruzzese, Sulmóne; la, Sulmo; grc, Σουλμῶν, Soulmôn) is a city and ''comune'' of the province of L'Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy. It is located in the Valle Peligna, a plain once occupied by a lake that disappeared in ...

and

Chieti Chieti (, ; , nap, label= Abruzzese, Chjïétë, ; gr, Θεάτη, Theátē; lat, Theate, ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Central Italy, east by northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region. ...

, becoming passionate of classic novels and learning mathematics as a self-taught person. In 1838 he arrived in

to study engineering at the School of Bridges and Roads, today's Engineering faculty of

Naples University The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

, and the following year he was accepted as a student at the

Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte The Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte ( it, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, italic=no) is the Neapolitan department of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (National Institute for Astrophysics, INAF), the most important Italian instit ...

by the director

Ernesto Capocci Ernesto Capocci Belmonte (Picinisco, 31 March 1798 – Naples, 6 January 1864) was an Italian mathematician, astronomer and politician. From 1815 he was a pupil at the Astronomical Observatory of Naples directed by his uncle Federigo Zuccari ...

. He studied

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...

and in 1845 he published his first scientific paper on the orbit of the

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...

Vesta. For this studies he earned, as early as 1846, the honorary degree in mathematics by the University of Naples. In 1848 he participated in the liberal movements, he avoided the Bourbon repression dedicating to the King Ferdinand II his first discovery: the asteroid Hygiea, made on 12 April 1849 with the equatorial telescope of Reichenbach & Utzschneider, giving it the name of Igea Borbonica. In 1850, Capocci was dismissed as director of the observatory due to his participation in the liberal revolts. De Gasparis refused to assume the position of observatory director in deference to his mentor and friend Capocci. In 1858 he was appointed professor of astronomy in Naples University. After the death of Capocci, 6 January 1864, he was appointed as director of the

. Due to his illness he left the observatory in 1889 going to live in a country house not far from the Observatory. De Gasparis married Giuseppina Russo in 1848, and they had 9 children together, 3 of which died in infancy. De Gasparis published more than 200 scientific papers on mathematics, celestial mechanics, astronomy and meteorology. He and others occasionally wrote his name as Annibal de Gasparis.

Discoveries

Annibale de Gasparis discovered visually the following nine

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

s. In addition, he also independently discovered

14 Irene Irene (minor planet designation: 14 Irene) is a large main-belt asteroid, discovered by the English astronomer John Russell Hind on May 19, 1851. It is orbiting the Sun at a distance of with a period of and an eccentricity of 0.168. The orbita ...

, which discovery was, however, credited to the English astronomer

John Russell Hind John Russell Hind FRS FRSE LLD (12 May 1823 – 23 December 1895) was an English astronomer. Life and work John Russell Hind was born in 1823 in Nottingham, the son of lace manufacturer John Hind and Elizabeth Russell, and was educated at ...

Honors and Awards

He won the

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...

in 1851. He was also 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 180 ...

from 1849 to 1853. On 20 January 1861 he was appointed Senator of the

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...

for his high scientific merits. Recipient of the

Order of the Red Eagle The Order of the Red Eagle (german: Roter Adlerorden) was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful se ...

, and of the

Order of the Rose The Imperial Order of the Rose ( pt, Imperial Ordem da Rosa) was a Brazilian order of chivalry, instituted by Emperor Pedro I of Brazil on 17 October 1829 to commemorate his marriage to Amélie of Leuchtenberg. On 22 March 1890, the order was can ...

. The main-belt asteroid 4279 De Gasparis as well as the 30-kilometer lunar crater '' de Gasparis'' and the nearby 93-kilometer long fracture Rimae de Gasparis, are named in his honour.

References

* *

External links

* , Bibliographic Code: 1851MmRAS..20..226A {{DEFAULTSORT:de Gasparis, Annibale 1819 births 1892 deaths Discoverers of asteroids * 19th-century Italian astronomers Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Recipients of the Lalande Prize Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Italy) Scientists from Naples