Charles Dillon Perrine

American astronomer
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Quick Facts
Born:
July 28, 1867, Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.
Died:
June 21, 1951, Villa General Mitre, Arg. (aged 83)
Subjects Of Study:
Jupiter
solar parallax

Charles Dillon Perrine (born July 28, 1867, Steubenville, Ohio, U.S.—died June 21, 1951, Villa General Mitre, Arg.) was a U.S. astronomer who discovered the sixth and seventh moons of Jupiter in 1904 and 1905, respectively. In 1904, he published a calculation of the solar parallax (a measure of the Earth–Sun distance) based on observations of the minor planet Eros during one of its close approaches to the Earth.

Perrine worked at the Lick Observatory in California from 1893 to 1909 and then until his retirement in 1936 was director of the Argentine National Observatory in Córdoba. His work included counts of extragalactic nebulae and the discovery of 13 comets.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.