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On this day in 1842 – December 8th – French astronomer Alphonse Louis Nicolas Borrelly was born in Roquemaure (Gard) in southern France.

At the Marseille Observatory, Borrelly discovered 18 asteroids and discovered or co-discovered at least six comets, including the periodic comet 19P/Borrelly. That comet was photographed by NASA's Deep Space 1 in September 2001. It rounds the Sun again next year on February 1.

Mona Evans
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