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Neptune's first orbit: a turning point in astronomy
As Neptune nears a historic orbit around the Sun, Robin McKie recalls the dramatic story of how the icy world was discovered
Robin McKie The Observer, Sunday 10 July 2011
Astronomers will celebrate a remarkable event on 11 July. It will be exactly one year since the planet Neptune was discovered. Readers should note a caveat, however. That year is a Neptunian one. The great icy world was first pinpointed 164.79 years ago – on 23 September 1846. And as Neptune takes 164.79 Earthly years to circle the sun, it is only now completing its first full orbit since its detection by humans. Hence those anniversary celebrations.
And there is much to commemorate – for Neptune's discovery marked a turning point in astronomy. Its existence was revealed, not through a serendipitous observation by an astronomer but by the careful work of mathematicians. They calculated that perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, then thought to be the sun's most distant planet, could only be explained by the existence of another, even remoter world whose gravity was affecting Uranus's path.
The mathematicians – Englishman John Adams and Frenchman Urbain Le Verrier – made their calculations separately. Both agreed, however, where in the sky astronomers would pinpoint the planet causing those perturbations.
etc...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... -astronomy
This article repeats a story that is as much myth as fact. Adams and Le Verrier based their calculations on Bodes Law, so they both assumed a much bigger and more distant planet than Neptune turned out to be as the perturbing agent. So their calculations agreed with each other, but not with reality!
It was really a fluke or a coincidence that Neptune just happened to be near the predicted position. (Remember that this position was given in terms of celestial co-ordinates, similar to Lat and Long - but the calculated distance would have been much greater than Neptune's...) So in fact Neptune's discovery was a "serendipitous observation" after all.
But no doubt this legend of the triumph of science will continue for a few more Neptunian orbits!
As Neptune nears a historic orbit around the Sun, Robin McKie recalls the dramatic story of how the icy world was discovered
Robin McKie The Observer, Sunday 10 July 2011
Astronomers will celebrate a remarkable event on 11 July. It will be exactly one year since the planet Neptune was discovered. Readers should note a caveat, however. That year is a Neptunian one. The great icy world was first pinpointed 164.79 years ago – on 23 September 1846. And as Neptune takes 164.79 Earthly years to circle the sun, it is only now completing its first full orbit since its detection by humans. Hence those anniversary celebrations.
And there is much to commemorate – for Neptune's discovery marked a turning point in astronomy. Its existence was revealed, not through a serendipitous observation by an astronomer but by the careful work of mathematicians. They calculated that perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, then thought to be the sun's most distant planet, could only be explained by the existence of another, even remoter world whose gravity was affecting Uranus's path.
The mathematicians – Englishman John Adams and Frenchman Urbain Le Verrier – made their calculations separately. Both agreed, however, where in the sky astronomers would pinpoint the planet causing those perturbations.
etc...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... -astronomy
This article repeats a story that is as much myth as fact. Adams and Le Verrier based their calculations on Bodes Law, so they both assumed a much bigger and more distant planet than Neptune turned out to be as the perturbing agent. So their calculations agreed with each other, but not with reality!
It was really a fluke or a coincidence that Neptune just happened to be near the predicted position. (Remember that this position was given in terms of celestial co-ordinates, similar to Lat and Long - but the calculated distance would have been much greater than Neptune's...) So in fact Neptune's discovery was a "serendipitous observation" after all.
But no doubt this legend of the triumph of science will continue for a few more Neptunian orbits!