Jean Elias Benjamin Valz (May 27, 1787 – April 22, 1867) was a French

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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either o ...

. He was born in Nîmes and trained as an engineer. He was the son of politician

Jean Valz Jean Valz (1746 in Gard – 1794 in Nîmes) was a French politician. He was a member of the bourgeois class, and served as an administrator in the city of Nîmes, Gard Gard () is a department in Southern France, located in the region of Oc ...

and the grandson of the doctor, meteorologist and naturalist Pierre Baux (1708–1790). He became interested in

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

and

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

s in particular, observing the return of what would later be named

Comet Encke Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS h ...

. He later made a very complete calculation of the

orbital elements Orbital elements are the parameters required to uniquely identify a specific orbit. In celestial mechanics these elements are considered in two-body systems using a Kepler orbit. There are many different ways to mathematically describe the same ...

of another comet, for which he won recognition. In 1835 he hypothesized that irregularities in

Comet Halley Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the on ...

's orbit could be explained by an unknown planet beyond

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronu ...

— at the time,

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 time ...

was not yet discovered. He built a private observatory at his home and when he left in 1836 to take up a post as director of the Marseille Observatory, he left the use of his home to

Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent (or Joseph Laurent) (died 1900) was a French amateur astronomer and chemist who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858, for which he was a recipient of the Lalande Prize awarded by the French Academy ...

, who used the observatory to discover the

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, 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 o ...

51 Nemausa. The house, at 32 rue Nationale in Nîmes, has a plaque commemorating the discovery. Valz himself was at one time said to be the discoverer of two asteroids, 20 Massalia and 25 Phocaea, but nowadays these are credited to the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis and to Valz's colleague Jean Chacornac, respectively. In 1874, Valz's widow donated 10,000 francs to the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at th ...

to establish a prize in honor of her late husband. The

Valz Prize The Valz Prize ''(Prix Valz)'' was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, from 1877 through 1970, to honor advances in astronomy. History The Valz Prize was established in June 1874 when the widow of astronomer Benjamin Valz, Marie Madeleine ...

''(Prix Valz)'' was awarded for work of similar stature as that honored by the pre-existing

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 ...

. The Valz Prize was given out from 1877 through 1970.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20040712090559/http://www-obs.cnrs-mrs.fr/tricent/astronomes/valz.htm (in French)
B. Valz
@

Astrophysics Data System The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is an online database of over 16 million astronomy and physics papers from both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources. Abstracts are available free online for almost all articles, and full scanned ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Valz, Benjamin 1787 births 1867 deaths 19th-century French astronomers People from Nîmes Recipients of the Lalande Prize