Friedrich Bessel

Friedrich Bessel, born in 1784, was a German astronomer and mathematician whose early career in commerce quickly gave way to a passionate pursuit of the cosmos. Thankfully for science, he traded ledger books for logarithms, eventually becoming one of the 19th century's most influential figures in observational astronomy.

His crowning achievement, and the one that cemented his place in the scientific pantheon, was the first reliable measurement of stellar parallax in 1838. By observing 61 Cygni, Bessel finally provided empirical evidence for the heliocentric model, something Copernicus had only hypothesized centuries earlier. It's safe to say this was a pretty big deal.

While his contributions to understanding the vastness of space were immense, and certainly kvelly in a universal sense, there's absolutely nothing to suggest any Jewish connection. His family tree appears decidedly Teutonic, and his religious practice, if any, was firmly rooted in mainstream German Protestantism. So, a brilliant mind, yes; a member of the tribe, no.