William Herschel and his sister caroline herschel observe the sky.
19th century will be the century of astronomical discovery. As telescopes become household names, many people can see the sky and observe celestial bodies. 178 1 year, William Herschel and his sister caroline herschel discovered Uranus with their telescopes. By 1847, Uranus made a circle around the sun, and the data can be used for analysis. According to Newton's law of universal gravitation, the data show that Uranus has different paths around the sun. These data look like the massive mass outside Uranus affects Uranus' orbit. Later, it was found that the reason for the difference was Neptune's attraction to Uranus.
Neptune, like Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, is a gas giant planet. It is the fourth largest planet in the solar system. 16 12 Galileo first observed Neptune. Galileo misunderstood it as a star. With the orbital data of Uranus, two mathematicians on both sides of the English Channel launched a competition to find Neptune.
John Koch ADAMS
John couch adams is a mathematician and astronomer from England. Adams sat down with the data, calculated backwards, and found the mass and position of the celestial body that affected Uranus' orbit. After several repetitions, he was able to infer the position of Neptune. Adams sent his observation report to george airy of the Royal Observatory. He also gave them to James Challis of Cambridge Observatory. He asked the two of them to use their advanced telescopes to find new planets. On the other side of the English Channel, another mathematician did the same calculation.
Earle Levi is a French mathematician. According to the orbit of Uranus, he submitted the first analysis report to the Academy of Sciences in1845165438+10. He continued to search for the position of this new planet. George airy got Will's calculation results and was convinced that Adams' analysis was correct. George airy, Adams and John Herschel (son of William Herschel) began to look for this planet. Unfortunately, because the map was out of date, they saw the other side of the sky.
Finally, Verhille discovered the mass and position of this new planet. As the French Observatory was not interested in his idea, he handed his calculation results to John gottfried Galle of the Berlin Observatory. Neptune was discovered by Galle and his team, only one degree away from Verhille's analysis. Galle's answer to Verhille is
The planet you calculated does exist. "
Verhille first drew the orbit of Uranus around the sun according to Newton's law of universal gravitation. Vier also plotted Neptune's gravity on Uranus.
According to the gravitational influence of Neptune on Uranus, Vier plotted Neptune's orbit. The orbit of Neptune predicted by Verhille is only one degree different from the actual orbit of Neptune.
In the 9th century, the competition between France and Britain was mature. The ownership of Neptune's discovery is controversial. George airy and John Herschel believed that Adams' calculation had already begun before Verhille published his analysis in Paris. After a long debate, Verel discovered Neptune. As compensation, Adam got an important position at the Cambridge Observatory. Vairel 1846 won the copley Prize and Adams 1849 won the copley Prize. Adams later attributed the discovery of Neptune to Verrill. Adams and Verhille later became friends.
Neptune was the first planet to be mathematically predicted before observation. The race to find new planets triggered a conflict between British and French scientists. But in the end, with the development of friendship between competitors, science won.