The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Donati, Giovanni Battista
(jvän´n bät-ts´tä dnä´t) (KEY) , 1826–73, Italian astronomer, b. Pisa. Serving as director of the Florence Observatory from 1864, he was a pioneer in the spectroscopic study of the stars and the sun. Donati was the first to obtain and analyze the spectrum of a comet, concluding that the composition of comets is, at least in part, gaseous. He discovered (1854–64) six new comets, among them Donati’s comet, which he first saw on June 2, 1858.
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