After reviewing the documents, some historians now think that Adams does not deserve equal credit with Le Verrier. However, historians are now reviewing the topic after the rediscovery in 1998 of the "Neptune papers" (historical documents from the Royal Greenwich Observatory), which had seemingly been stolen by astronomer Olin Eggen for nearly three decades and were only rediscovered (in his ownership) right after his death. Later, an international agreement decided that both Le Verrier and Adams together deserved credit. Challis later found out that he had seen the planet twice in August, failing to recognize it owing to his careless approach to the work.Īfter the news of the discovery of Neptune spread, there was also a lot of arguing between the French and the British about who was to be deserved credit for the discovery. Neptune was then discovered that very night on September 23, 1846, within 1° of where Le Verrier had predicted it to be, and about 10° from Adams' prediction. Meanwhile, Le Verrier had convinced Johann Gottfried Galle to search for the planet.Īlthough Heinrich d'Arrest was still a student at the Berlin Observatory, he suggested that a newly drawn map of the sky, in the region of Le Verrier's predicted area, could be compared with the current sky to look for the displacement characteristic of a planet, as compared to a fixed star. After much delay, Challis began his unwilling search in July 1846. However, in the same year, John Herschel began to support the mathematical method and encouraged James Challis to search for the planet. In 1846, Urbain Le Verrier, who was not working with Adams, made his own calculations but also failed to get much attention from French astronomers. Adams began to make a copy of the reply, but never sent it. He sent his calculations to Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, who asked Adams for an explanation. In 1843, John Couch Adams calculated the orbit of an eighth planet that would possibly be influencing the orbit of Uranus. Later observations showed that Uranus was moving in an irregular way in its orbit, making some astronomers think of another large body being the cause of the irregular motions of Uranus. In 1821, Alexis Bouvard published the astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus. Visits by more space probes have been proposed. It is not known why the dark spot disappeared. However, the dark spot was not seen in 1994, and new spots were found since then. Neptune once had a huge storm known as the "Great Dark Spot" which was discovered in 1989 by Voyager 2. The planet was visited by only one spacecraft, Voyager 2 on August 25, 1989. Because of Uranus' odd movements in its orbit (the line which a planet follows in moving), it made astronomers search for the new planet. The planet was the first to be discovered by mathematical calculations instead of using a telescope. They were both honored for the discovery. Neptune was discovered by the astronomers, Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams. Neptune also has the strongest winds of any planet in the solar system, measured as high as 2,100 km/h or 1,300 mph. Neptune's blue color is much brighter compared to Uranus', which has a similar amount of methane, so there might be another reason why Neptune is blue. It also contains small amounts of methane which makes the planet appear blue. Neptune's atmosphere is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. It was named after the Roman God of the Sea. It is 17 times heavier than Earth and is a little bit heavier than Uranus. Neptune has four rings which are hard to see from the Earth. It is the fourth largest planet and third heaviest. Neptune, is the eighth and last planet from the Sun in the Solar System. For other uses, see Neptune (disambiguation).
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