![]() A Discovery and a Scandal![]() Fortunately for our story, two mathematicians did manage to solve it, quite independently of each other, and without knowing the other was working on the problem. John Couch Adams began working on the problem after he graduated from Cambridge in 1843. However, the solution Adams devised went unheeded by the Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory, George Airy, who believed the problem was mathematically unsolvable. Adams refined and resubmitted his prediction, but to no avail. On the continent, Urbain Leverrier began working on the same problem in June of 1845 and presented his prediction to the Paris Academy of Sciences a year later. Realizing his colleagues had no intention of actually looking for this planet, Leverrier sent his information to Airy at the Greenwich Observatory. Upon comparing the predictions of Adams and Leverrier, Airy decided that Adams's work must have merit, but he never mentioned this to Adams, nor did he inform Leverrier about Adams's predictions, or even about the existence of John Adams, who had beat Leverrier to the solution by eight months. In August, 1846, Leverrier presented another paper in which he gave all the details of the planet -- the orbital elements, mass, and position. He was lauded for his mathematical skills, but no one offered to look for his planet. Frustrated, Leverrier finally sent his predictions to Johann Galle, an assistant at the Berlin Observatory. On September 23, 1846, Galle received Leverrier's letter. That night he and a graduate student, Heinrich d'Arrest, aimed their telescope at the predicted location. Within an hour they found the planet. In a triumph of mathematical theory, Neptune had been discovered. This was rather a scandal for the British, who had been in possession of the necessary information for the discovery, but had failed to act. Leverrier was credited with the discovery, since it was his data the Germans used to find Neptune. When the British tried to stake their claim in this momentous discovery, the Paris Academy of Sciences was in an uproar. Accusations were hurled across the Channel and public denouncements became ugly. Eventually the dispute settled down and, as his contribution became clear, Adams received his due credit. He now takes his place in history beside Leverrier as the first person to predict Neptune's location.
Still One Little Problem![]() This time no one questioned Newton's Law, which had held up rather well over the years. Instead, astronomers proposed another planet as the culprit. Unfortunately, it would be too distant, too dim, and just too difficult to find. The nights at the telescope were long and cold enough already without engaging in a fruitless search, so most astronomers just never tried to find the ninth planet.
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