Carl Gustav Witt

Carl Gustav Witt
Born(1866-10-29)29 October 1866
Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Died3 January 1946(1946-01-03) (aged 79)
NationalityGerman
Alma materFriedrich-Wilhelms-Universität
Known fordiscovery of asteroids
AwardsIron Cross 2nd Class,
2732 Witt is named after him
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsFriedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Urania Sternwarte Berlin
Doctoral advisorJulius Bauschinger
Asteroids discovered: 2 [1]
422 Berolina 8 October 1896
433 Eros 13 August 1898

Carl Gustav Witt (29 October 1866 – 3 January 1946) was a German astronomer and discoverer of two asteroids who worked at the Berlin Urania Observatory, a popular observatory of the Urania astronomical association of Berlin.[2]

He wrote a doctoral thesis under the direction of Julius Bauschinger.

Witt discovered two asteroids, most notably 433 Eros, the first asteroid with a male name, and the first known near-Earth object.[3][4] His first minor planet discovery was the main-belt asteroid 422 Berolina, that bears the Latin name of his adoptive city.[5]

The minor planet 2732 Witt – an A-type asteroid from the main-belt, discovered by Max Wolf at Heidelberg Observatory in 1926 – was named in his memory by American astronomer and MPC's longtime director, Brian G. Marsden.[2] Naming citation was published on 22 September 1983 (M.P.C. 8153).[6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC-Discoverers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference springer-Witt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC-Eros was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference springer-Eros was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference springer-Berolina was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference MPC-Circulars-Archive was invoked but never defined (see the help page).