Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux

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Portrait of Jean-Phillippe de Chéseaux

Jean-Philippe Loys de Chéseaux (1718–1751) was an astronomer from Lausanne in Switzerland. In 1746 he presented a list of nebulae, eight of which were his own new discoveries, to the Académie Française des Sciences. The list was noted privately by Le Gentil in 1759, but only made public in 1892 by Guillaume Bigourdan. Chéseaux was among the first to state, in its modern form, what would later be known as Olbers' paradox (that, if the universe is infinite, the night sky should be bright).

De Chéseaux discovered two comets: ^[1]

C/1743 X1 — with Dirk Klinkenberg
C/1746 P1

De Chéseaux also did some little-known research into Biblical chronology, attempting to date the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth by analysing astronomical observations in the Book of Daniel. This work was published posthumously in Mémoires posthumes de M. de Chéseaux (1754).

Footnotes

↑ Maik Meyer. Catalog of comet discoveries

External links

Short biography at SEDS
De Chéseaux's List of 21 "Nebulae" at SEDS

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 154510 LCCN: n88638185 ISNI: 0000 0000 8079 4138 GND: 117683353 BNF: cb133196302 HDS: 15895

Persondata
Name	Cheseaux, Jean Philippe De
Alternative names
Short description	Swiss astronomer
Date of birth	1718
Place of birth
Date of death	1751
Place of death

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