Johaun Gottfried Galle, a German astronomer, born at Pabsthaus, near Wittenberg, June 9, 1812. He studied at Wittenberg and Berlin, and became a teacher and subsequently an assistant at the observatory in the latter city, of which Encke was director. In 1839-'40, for the discovery of three new comets, he received medals from the king of Denmark and the Lalande prize from the French academy. A doctor's diploma was given to him after his publication in 1845 of Triduum Roeineri, relating to the observations of Ole Romer. In 1846 Le-verrier applied to Galle for aid in searching for the planet which he supposed to exist beyond Uranus. With the assistance of a map just completed by Dr. Bemicker, Galle had the good fortune to be the first to detect this Leverrier planet, subsequently known as Neptune, on the evening of the very same day on which he had received the French astronomer's application (Sept. 23). Encke declared that theoretic astronomy had never before achieved so great a victory as on this occasion, and Galle received another Lalande prize from the French academy.

In 1851 he was appointed professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Breslau. Besides numerous contributions on the subject of astronomy and meteorology to scientific periodicals, he has published Grund-ziige der schlesischen Klimatologie (Breslau, 1857), and an extensive supplement to Encke's Kometentafel (1863).