thumb|upright|Wilhelm Tempel

{| class="wikitable" align="right" style="margin: 1em; margin-top: 0; font-size: 0.9em;"

|+ Asteroids discovered: 5

Tempel was born at Niedercunnersdorf, Saxony. He was a prolific discoverer of comets, discovering or co-discovering 21 in all, including Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, now known to be the parent body of the Leonid meteor shower, and 9P/Tempel, the target of the NASA probe Deep Impact in 2005. Other periodic comets that bear his name include 10P/Tempel and 11P/Tempel-Swift-LINEAR.

In 1861, he was awarded the Lalande Prize. He won the Prix Valz for the year 1880. The main-belt asteroid 3808 Tempel and the lunar crater Tempel are named after him.

</references> <!-- end of reflist -->

  • W. Tempel @ Astrophysics Data System