science · 11 October 1758 · 266 years ago
birth
Born 11 Oct 1758; died 2 Mar 1840 at age 81.
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthaus Olbers was a German physician and astronomer who, while practising medicine at Bremen, calculated the orbit of the comet of 1779, discovered the minor planets (asteroids) Pallas (1802) and Vesta (1807), and discovered five comets (all but one already observed at Paris). Olbers invented a method for calculating the velocity of falling stars. He is also known for Olber's paradox which asks “why is the night sky dark if there are so many bright stars all around to light it?”
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