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Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf ( June 21 1863 – October 3 1932) was a German astronomer. He was a pioneer of astrophotography.

Working in Heidelberg, he discovered more than 200 asteroids, beginning with 323 Brucia in 1891. He pioneered the use of astrophotographic techniques to automate the discovery of asteroids, as opposed to older visual methods, as a result of which asteroid discovery rates sharply increased. In time-exposure photographs, asteroids appear as short streaks due to their planetary motion with respect to fixed stars.

Among his many discoveries was 588 Achilles (the first Trojan asteroid) in 1906, as well as two other Trojans: 659 Nestor and 884 Priamus . He also discovered 887 Alinda in 1918, which is now recognized as an Earth-crossing Amor asteroid (or sometimes classified as the namesake of its own Alinda family).

The Minor Planet Center credits his discoveries as "M. F. Wolf"; there is a more recent "M. Wolf" who is Marek Wolf.

He also discovered or co-discovered some comets, including 14P/Wolf and 43P/Wolf-Harrington .

He also discovered Wolf 359, a red dwarf that is one of the nearest stars to our solar system. Note that Wolf-Rayet stars were co-discovered by French astronomer Charles Wolf and not by him.

He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1914. He won the Bruce Medal in 1930. Interestingly, the Bruce Medal and asteroid Brucia are both named after the same person, Catherine Wolfe Bruce.

A crater on the Moon is named after him, and so is the asteroid 827 Wolfiana .