Friedrich Bessel
(1784-1846)

Died aged c. 62

Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (German: [ˈbɛsl̩]; 22 July 1784 – 17 March 1846) was a German astronomer, mathematician, physicist, and geodesist. He was the first astronomer who determined reliable values for the distance from the sun to another star by the method of parallax. A special type of mathematical functions were named Bessel functions after Bessel's death, though they had originally been discovered by Daniel Bernoulli and then generalised by Bessel.

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Commemorated on 1 plaque

Hier stand das Haus, in dem Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel der Begründer der modernen Astronomie 1784 geboren wurde. 1810 übernahm Bessel, der mit König Friedr. Wilh. IV. von Preußen befreundet war, die Leitung der Sternwarte in Königsberg (Pr.), wo es als Professor der dortigen Universitat 1846 starb.

Kampstraße 28, Minden, Germany where they was born (1784)