Discovery of Asteroid Vesta

Date: March 29, 1807 • Location: Berlin, Germany

German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers discovered Vesta, the brightest asteroid and second-most massive body in the asteroid belt.

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.