biography
| name: |
Cassini, Giovanni Domenico
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| |
also known as Jean Dominique Cassini
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pronunciation:
[kaseenee]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1625–1712)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Perinaldo, NW Italy. In 1650 he became professor of astronomy at Bologna, and in 1669 the first director of the observatory at Paris. He greatly extended knowledge of the Sun's parallax, the periods of Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, and was the first to record observations of zodiacal light. In 1684 he discovered two natural satellites of Saturn, Dione and Tethys. Cassini's division (the gap between two of Saturn's rings) is named after him, and Cassini's laws, describing the rotation of the Moon, were formulated in 1693. He was succeeded as director at Paris by a dynasty of Cassinis. |
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