Discovery of Asteroid Pallas

Date: March 28, 1802 • Location: Berlin, Germany

German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid to be identified, but at the time considered to be a planet.

Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers was a German astronomer. He found a convenient method of calculating the orbit of comets, and in 1802 and 1807, discovered the second and the fourth asteroids Pallas and Vesta.