German astronomer, born at Pabsthaus, Germany, on the 9th of June 1812. He studied at the universities of Wittenberg and Berlin, and afterward became a teacher at Guben and in Berlin. In 1835 he was made an assistant in the newly founded observatory in Berlin. Here he enjoyed the instruction of the celebrated astronomer, Encke. At the end of 1839 Galle discovered three new comets, for which he was awarded the Lalande prize. On September 23, 1846, Galle received a letter from the French astronomer Leverrier, requesting him to examine a certain part of the sky for an unknown planet, and that very evening he discovered the planet Neptune, marking an era in the history of astronomy. Galle continued to make further discoveries, and in 1851 was made professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at Breslau. He has published a number of articles on astronomy in several scientific journals, but especially in the Astronomische Nachrichten.
