french astronomer who predicted the position of neptune?

Answer 1

There are two French astronomers involved in the story, Urbain Le Verrier and Alexis Bouvard. Not sure which of the two you had in mind.

Discovery credited to Urbain Le Verrier, John Couch Adams and Johann Galle.

Discovered on September 23, 1846 following discrepancies between the predicted orbit of Uranus and its observed position which had caused Alexis Bouvard (1767 – 1843), the director of the Paris Observatory to predict the existence if an eighth planet, responsible for the irregularities in Uranus' orbit. The position of Neptune was subsequently calculated, independently, by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier after Bouvard's death.

Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier (1811 – 1877) was a French mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics. He worked at the Paris Observatory for most of his life.

In 1821, Alexis Bouvard published astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus. Subsequent observations revealed substantial deviations from the tables, leading Bouvard to hypothesize some perturbing body. In 1843, John Couch Adams calculated the orbit of an eighth planet that would account for Uranus' motion. He sent his calculations to Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, who asked Adams for a clarification; Adams began to draft a reply but never sent it.

In 1846, Urbain Le Verrier, independently of Adams, produced his own calculations but also experienced difficulties in encouraging any enthusiasm in his compatriots. However, in the same year, John Herschel started to champion the mathematical approach and persuaded James Challis to search for the planet.

After much procrastination, Challis began his reluctant search in July 1846. However, in the meantime, Le Verrier had convinced Johann Gottfried Galle to search for the planet. Though still a student at the Berlin Observatory, Heinrich d'Arrest suggested that a recently drawn chart of the sky, in the region of Le Verrier's predicted location, could be compared with the current sky to seek the displacement characteristic of a planet, as opposed to a fixed star.

Neptune was discovered that very night, September 23, 1846, within 1° of where Le Verrier had predicted it to be, and about 10° from Adams' prediction. Challis later realized that he had observed the planet twice in August, failing to identify it owing to his casual approach to the work.

Johann Gottfried Galle (1812 – 1910) was a German astronomer at the Berlin Observatory who, with the assistance of student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest, was the first person to view the planet Neptune, and know what he was looking at (September 23, 1846). He used the calculations of Urbain Le Verrier to know where to look.

(Galileo had observed Neptune in 1612 but had thought it a star).

AFTERMATH OF THE DISCOVERY OF NEPTUNE

Perhaps galvanized by the discovery, Le Verrier proceeded to interpret the orbit of Mercury as influenced by another planet (tentatively named Vulcan). This triggered a wave of false detections, which lasted until 1915, when Einstein explained the anomalous motion with his theory of general relativity.

Craters on the Moon and Mars, a ring of Neptune, and the asteroid 1997 Leverrier are named after him.

ANGLO-FRENCH RIVALRY

In the aftermath of the discovery, there was much nationalistic rivalry between the French and the British over who had priority and deserved credit for the discovery. Eventually an international consensus emerged that both Le Verrier and Adams jointly deserved credit.

NAMING

Shortly after its discovery, Neptune was referred to simply as "the planet exterior to Uranus" or as "Le Verrier's planet." The first suggestion for a name came from Galle. He proposed the name Janus. In England, Challis put forth the name Oceanus, particularly appropriate for a seafaring people. In France, Arago suggested that the new planet be called Leverrier, a suggestion which was met with stiff resistance outside France. French almanacs promptly reintroduced the name Herschel for Uranus and Leverrier for the new planet.

Meanwhile, on separate and independent occasions, Adams suggested altering the name Georgian to Uranus, while Leverrier (through the Board of Longitude) suggested Neptune for the new planet. Struve came out in favor of that name on December 29, 1846, to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Soon Neptune became the internationally accepted nomenclature.

A NOTE ON ADAMS

John Couch Adams (1819 – 1892), was a British mathematician and astronomer. in October 1839 he went up to St John's College, Cambnridge, graduating with a B.A. in 1843 as the senior wrangler (top mathematician) of his year.

While still an undergraduate he happened to read of certain unexplained irregularities in the motion of the planet Uranus, and determined to investigate them as soon as possible, with a view to ascertaining whether they might not be due to the action of a remote undiscovered planet.

Elected fellow of his college in 1843, he at once proceeded to attack the novel problem. It was this: from the observed perturbations of a known planet to deduce by calculation, assuming only Newton's law of gravitation, the mass and orbit of an unknown disturbing body.

By September 1845 he obtained his first solution, and handed to Professor James Challis, the director of the Cambridge Observatory, a paper giving the elements of what he described as "the new planet." (Challis would later observe it, but fail to recognize it, despite possessing Adams' paper.)

COMMENT

It would seem Le Verrier was better served by Galle than Adams was by Challis, and that Adams beat Le Verrier to it in terms of commencing work on tackling the problem.

The dispute has strong echoes of Newton and Leibnitz both independently discovering calculus, neither aware of the other's work on the problem.

Answer 2

Urbain Le Verrier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbain_Le_Verrier

Answer 3

Uranus develop into discovered utilising a telescope on March thirteenth, 1781. (Wikipedia says that Uranus is extremely seen from earth and not using a telescope. So i wager it develop into acknowledged as a planet on that date.) A telescope magnifies similar to a miles off merchandise so it may been considered with the human eye. The telescope develop into used to discover Neptune and Uranus. Telescopes would properly be used from in the international or elsewhere. The Hubble Telescope is in orbit round earth and would take digital images and deliver them back to earth. also area probes were despatched to Uranus and Neptune in addition they take digital images and they have despatched them back to Earth.

Answer 4

Leverrier (1811-1877)

Answer 5

leverrier