The planet Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of … See more

Le Verrier was unaware that his public confirmation of Adams' private computations had set in motion a British search for the purported planet. On 31 August, Le Verrier … See more

The conventional wisdom that Neptune's discovery should be "credited to both Adams and Le Verrier" has recently been challenged putting in doubt the accounts of Airy, Challis and Adams in 1846.
In 1999, Adams's correspondence with Airy, which had … See more

In 1821, Alexis Bouvard had published astronomical tables of the orbit of Uranus, making predictions of future positions based on See more

Upon receiving in England the news of Le Verrier's June prediction, George Airy immediately recognized the similarity of Le Verrier's and Adams' solutions. Up until that moment, Adams' … See more

On the announcement of the discovery, Herschel, Challis, and Richard Sheepshanks, foreign secretary of the Royal Astronomical … See more

Even before Neptune's discovery, some speculated that one planet alone was not enough to explain the discrepancy in Uranus' orbit. On 17 November 1834, the British amateur astronomer the Reverend Thomas John Hussey reported to Airy a conversation he … See more