Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt
Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt (June 17 1802 – April 26 1866) was a German astronomer and painter who spent much of his life in France.
He was born in Frankfurt, the son of a Jewish merchant. He went to Paris and studied art and painted a number of paintings before turning his attention to astronomy.
In April 1861 he announced the discovery of a ninth moon of Saturn between Titan and Hyperion, which he named "Chiron". However, he was mistaken: this moon did not exist. Today, "Chiron" is the name of an entirely different object, the unusual asteroid/comet 2060 Chiron.
He is credited with being the first to record and observe (in 1820) the shadow bands that appear in the minutes just before a total solar eclipse.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1861. A crater on the Moon is named after him, and so is the asteroid 1614 Goldschmidt .
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