Palisa was born on 6 December 1848, inTroppau inAustrian Silesia (now calledOpava and located in theCzech Republic).[1] From 1866 to 1870, Palisa studiedmathematics andastronomy at theUniversity of Vienna; however, he did not graduate until 1884. Despite this, by 1870 he was an assistant at the university's observatory, and a year later gained a position at the observatory in Geneva. A few years later, in 1872, at the age of 24, Palisa became the director of the Austrian Naval Observatory inPula. While at Pula, he discovered his first asteroid,136 Austria, on 18 March 1874. Along with this, he discovered twenty-seven minor planets and one comet. During his stay in Pula he used a small six-inchrefractor telescope to aid in his research.[1]
Palisa became director of the Pula observatory, with the rank of commander, until 1880.[6] In 1880 Palisa moved to the new Vienna Observatory. While at the observatory he discovered 94 comets by visual means.[1]
In 1885, Palisa offered to sell the naming rights of some of the minor planets he discovered, in order to fund his travels to observe theSolar eclipse of 29 August 1886.[8] However he sold just a small number of these naming rights and apparently did not go.[1]
Palisa andMax Wolf worked together to create the first star atlas created by photographic plates, thePalisa–Wolf Sternkarten, also known as thePalisa-Wolf-Star-Maps, published in 1899, 1902, 1908.[1][6] In 1908, Palisa published the Sternenlexikon, mapping the skies from declinations −1° to +19°.[1] That same year, he became the vice director of the Vienna Observatory. He retired from administrative duties in 1919, but kept observation rights. Palisa continued to discover asteroids until 1923. He died on 2 May 1925.
Between 1874 and 1923 Palisa discovered 122asteroids ranging from136 Austria to1073 Gellivara and the much later numbered Mars-crosser14309 Defoy, respectively(see table below).[2] He made his discoveries at the Austrian Naval Observatory at Pola (538) and at theVienna Observatory. He also discovered the parabolic cometC/1879 Q1 in August 1879.[1][9]
One of his discoveries was253 Mathilde, a 50-kilometer sizedC-type asteroid in the intermediate asteroid belt, which was visited by theNEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on 27 June 1997. The robotic probe passed within 1200 km of Mathilde at 12:56 UT at 9.93 km/s, returning imaging and other instrument data including over 500 images which covered 60% of Mathilde's surface.[10] Only a small number of minor planets have beenvisited by spacecraft.
Palisa made all of his asteroid discoveries visually. Even thoughMax Wolf had revolutionised the process of asteroid discovery by introducingphotography in the 1890s,[11] Palisa continued to trust on visual observations. His final discovery,1073 Gellivara, was the last asteroid that was found visually. Johann Palisa remains the most successful visual (non-photographic) asteroid discoverer of all time.[3]
It should also take 73 years after the last asteroid discovery of1073 Gellivara until the next minor planet9097 Davidschlag was discovered by Austrian amateur astronomers .
Grave of the astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Central Cemetery
Palisa married his second wife, Anna Benda, in 1902. Asteroid734 Benda is named after her.[12][13] He also named minor planets after other members of his family:320 Katharina after his mother, Katherina,[14]321 Florentina for his daughter Florentine.[15]
His granddaughter was Gertrud Rheden, wife of astronomerJoseph Rheden. Asteroid710 Gertrud is named after her.[16]
The Phocaea main-belt asteroid914 Palisana, discovered by Max Wolf in 1919, and the lunar craterPalisa were named in his honour.[5]Minor planets902 Probitas,975 Perseverantia, and996 Hilaritas that he discovered were given names after his death for traits qualities associated with him: adherence to the highest principles and ideals, perseverance and happy or contented mind. Names were given byJoseph Rheden with the support of Palisa's second wife, Anna.[17]
Minor planet1152 Pawona is named after both Johann Palisa andMax Wolf, in recognition of their cooperation. The name was proposed by Swedish astronomer Bror Ansgar Asplind.Pawona is a combination of "Palisa" and "Wolf" (Pa, Wo) joined with a Latin feminine suffix.[18]