Edwin Foster Coddington (June 24, 1870 – December 21, 1950) was an American

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 ...

and discoverer of

astronomical objects An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are often us ...

. He co-discovered the

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, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...

C/1898 L1 (Coddington-Pauly), also known by the older designation Comet 1898 VII. He also discovered 3

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, and the

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

IC 2574 in

Ursa Major Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...

, which later became known as "Coddington's Nebula". IC 2574 HST

References

External links

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Portrait of Edwin Foster Coddington from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections
1870 births 1950 deaths 19th-century American astronomers 20th-century American astronomers Discoverers of asteroids Discoverers of comets {{US-astronomer-stub