biography
| name: |
Encke, Johann Franz
|
pronunciation:
[engkuh]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1791–1865)
|
| biography:
| Astronomer, born in Hamburg, N Germany. He studied at the University of Göttingen, was director of the Seeberg Observatory near Gotha, Germany (1822–5), and subsequently became director of the Observatory at Berlin University. He determined the period of the comet which now bears his name (1819), and accurately calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun. |
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