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Jean Elias Benjamin Valz (May 27 1787 – April 22 1867) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
.

He was born in Nīmes
Nīmes

N?mes is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Gard Departments of France. N?mes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and it is a popular tourist destination....
 and trained as an engineer. He became interested in astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 and comet
Comet

A comet is a Small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibits a visible coma or a tail?both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the Comet nucleus....
s in particular, observing the return of what would later be named Comet Encke
Comet Encke

Comet Encke or Encke's Comet is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the sun once every three years ? the shortest period of any known comet....
. He later made a very complete calculation of the orbital elements
Orbital elements

In celestial mechanics, the elements of an orbit are the parameters needed to specify that orbit uniquely. Orbital elements are generally considered in classical mechanics two-body systems, where a Kepler orbit is used ....
 of another comet, for which he won recognition.

In 1835 he hypothesized that irregularities in Comet Halley
Comet Halley

Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the most famous of the periodic comets and can currently be seen every 75?76 years. Many comets with long orbital periods may appear brighter and more spectacular, but Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye, and thus, the only naked-eye comet certain to return wi...
's orbit could be explained by an unknown planet beyond Uranus—at the time, Neptune was not yet discovered.

He built a private observatory at his home and when he went to take up a post as director of the Marseille Observatory
Marseille Observatory

Marseille Observatory or Observatoire de Marseille is an astronomy observatory run by the University of Provence. It is located near Marseille, France....
, he left his home to a young man named "A. Laurent
A. Laurent

A. Laurent was a France who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858.He never made any more asteroid discoveries and not much more seems to be known about him....
", who used the observatory to discover the asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
 51 Nemausa
51 Nemausa

51 Nemausa is a large Main belt asteroid similar to 1 Ceres in composition. It was discovered in the city of Nimes, France, France, after which it was named ....
.






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Jean Elias Benjamin Valz (May 27 1787 – April 22 1867) was a French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 astronomer
Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies Celestial body such as planets, stars, and Galaxy.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws....
.

He was born in Nīmes
Nīmes

N?mes is a city in southern France. It is the capital of the Gard Departments of France. N?mes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and it is a popular tourist destination....
 and trained as an engineer. He became interested in astronomy
Astronomy

Astronomy is the science of Astronomical object and Phenomenon that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere . It is concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects, as well as the physical cosmology....
 and comet
Comet

A comet is a Small Solar System body that orbits the Sun and, when close enough to the Sun, exhibits a visible coma or a tail?both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the Comet nucleus....
s in particular, observing the return of what would later be named Comet Encke
Comet Encke

Comet Encke or Encke's Comet is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the sun once every three years ? the shortest period of any known comet....
. He later made a very complete calculation of the orbital elements
Orbital elements

In celestial mechanics, the elements of an orbit are the parameters needed to specify that orbit uniquely. Orbital elements are generally considered in classical mechanics two-body systems, where a Kepler orbit is used ....
 of another comet, for which he won recognition.

In 1835 he hypothesized that irregularities in Comet Halley
Comet Halley

Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the most famous of the periodic comets and can currently be seen every 75?76 years. Many comets with long orbital periods may appear brighter and more spectacular, but Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye, and thus, the only naked-eye comet certain to return wi...
's orbit could be explained by an unknown planet beyond Uranus—at the time, Neptune was not yet discovered.

He built a private observatory at his home and when he went to take up a post as director of the Marseille Observatory
Marseille Observatory

Marseille Observatory or Observatoire de Marseille is an astronomy observatory run by the University of Provence. It is located near Marseille, France....
, he left his home to a young man named "A. Laurent
A. Laurent

A. Laurent was a France who discovered the asteroid 51 Nemausa in 1858.He never made any more asteroid discoveries and not much more seems to be known about him....
", who used the observatory to discover the asteroid
Asteroid

Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets or planetoids, are small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun, smaller than planets but larger than meteoroids....
 51 Nemausa
51 Nemausa

51 Nemausa is a large Main belt asteroid similar to 1 Ceres in composition. It was discovered in the city of Nimes, France, France, after which it was named ....
. The house, at 32 rue Nationale in Nīmes, has a plaque commemorating the discovery.

Valz himself was at one time said to be the discoverer of two asteroids, 20 Massalia
20 Massalia

'20 Massalia' is a large and fairly bright Main belt asteroid. It is also the largest member of the Massalia family of asteroids....
 and 25 Phocaea
25 Phocaea

'25 Phocaea' is a Main belt asteroid.It was discovered by Jean Chacornac at Marseille, on April 6. 1853. It was his first asteroid discovery....
, but nowadays these are credited to the Italian astronomer Annibale de Gasparis
Annibale de Gasparis

Annibale de Gasparis was an Italy astronomer. From 1864 to 1889 he was the director of the Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte in Naples....
 and to Valz's colleague Jean Chacornac
Jean Chacornac

Jean Chacornac was a French astronomer.He was born and died in Lyon. Working in Marseille and Paris, he discovered six asteroids. The asteroid 1622 Chacornac and the crater Chacornac on the Moon are named in his honour....
, respectively.

External links

  • (in French)