Vincenzo Zappalà (born 1945) is an Italian astronomer. He has discovered numerous asteroids, and 2813 Zappalà is named in his honour. An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies. Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using physical laws. Today, that distinction has mostly disappeared and the terms "astronomer" and "astrophysicist" are interchangeable.