J. G. Westphal

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J. G. Westphal was a German astronomer. Not to be confused with Johann Heinrich Westphal (1794 – 1831). Within the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) he appears to be confused for some reason with a third Westphal, "Alfred Friedrich Julius Westphal" ("Dr. A. Westphal"), a geophysicist who lived from August 1, 1850 to 1924 and who first published in 1881. J. G. Westphal is only mentioned a few times in the ADS, between 1853 and 1859.

He is chiefly known for discovering the periodic comet 20D/Westphal (a.k.a. 20D/1852 O1, 1852 IV, D/Westphal 1) on July 24, 1852. C. H. F. Peters independently discovered the same comet from Constantinople on August 3. Although it returned in 1913 (20D/1913 S1, 1913 VI, 1913d), the comet failed to return in 1976 and is now considered lost. There is substantial evidence that the comet completely disintegrated before reaching perihelion during its 1913 apparition.

Westphal did not discover any other comets or any asteroids. He held the title of Observator at Göttingen Observatory, whose director at the time was the famous Carl Friedrich Gauss. By the time of Gauss' death in 1855, however, he had resigned and had been replaced by Ernst Friedrich Wilhelm Klinkerfues.