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Giovanni Battista Donati




Donati graduated at the university in his native city Pisa and afterwards he joined the staff of the Observatory of Florence in 1852 and was appointed director in 1864 .
Between 1854 and 1864 he discovered six new Comet s, including the spectacular Comet Donati (C/1858 L1), found in 1858 . He also pioneered Spectroscopy of comets to determine their physical composition, discovering that the spectrum changed when a comet approached the Sun and heating caused it to emit its own light rather than reflected sunlight.
Donati died from bubonic plague.


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