Last week NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, after a voyage of about eight years, captured incredible video of two bright spots on Ceres. Ceres has an interesting history, labeled for decades a planet, then an asteroid (or minor planet), and most recently a dwarf planet, a category that includes another erstwhile planet, Pluto. Ceres was discovered through the dedication of a Catholic priest, Giuseppe Piazzi (1746-1826), who obtained the best astronomical instruments of his day, and positioned them where they could be used to best effect.
When he was 19, Piazzi joined the Theatine Order of clerics, which supported his doctoral studies in philosophy and mathematics. At 34, he was asked to occupy the chair of higher mathematics in Palermo. Palermo had climatic conditions favorable for astronomical observations, and Piazzi decided to found an observatory there, the southernmost in Europe. He traveled to England to obtain the most accurate telescope then available. With its help he developed a catalog of almost 7,000 stars, the most extensive and accurate up to that time. L’Institut de France awarded it the prize for “best astronomical work published in 1803.”
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