Johann Daniel Titius

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Johann Daniel Titius (January 2 1729 – December 11 1796) was a German astronomer and a professor at Wittenberg.
Titius was born in Konitz (Chojnice), Royal Prussia, and died in Wittenberg.
He is best known for formulating the Titius-Bode law, and for using this rule to predict the existence of a celestial object at 2.8  AU from the sun. His suggestion that the object would necessarily be small was later superseded by the claim of Johann Elert Bode for a planet-like object, subsequently identified as being Ceres. In part because of the Titius-Bode law, the first four minor planets were at first labeled full-fledged planets. After a fifteen-year hiatus, other minor planets started to be discovered at steadily increasing rates, and Ceres and company were eventually relabeled "minor planets" or "asteroids". Because of its spherical shape, Ceres was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.
The asteroid 1998 Titius and the Titius crater on the Moon are named in Titius' honour.
 External links 
  KDG Wittenberg: Prof. Dr. Joh. Daniel Titius




Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Monday February 04, 2008 at 08:20:30 PST (GMT -0800)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation