Paul Götz (1883–1962) 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 ...

and discoverer of 20

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 ...

s between 1903 and 1905. He did his Ph.D. dissertation in 1907 at the ''Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl'' (Königstuhl Observatory, near Heidelberg) at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

. At the time, the observatory at Heidelberg was a center for

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

discovery under the direction of

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K� ...

, and several past and future fellow Ph.D.s ( Raymond Smith Dugan, Joseph Helffrich, Franz Kaiser, Karl Reinmuth, Emil Ernst, Alfred Bohrmann) made a number of asteroid discoveries. Thus the asteroid discoveries by "P. Gotz" at Heidelberg in this time frame are undoubtedly identified with the Paul Götz who got his Ph.D. in 1907. The main-belt asteroid 2278 Götz was named in his memory in 1991 ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotz, Paul Discoverers of asteroids * 20th-century German astronomers