francois arago discovered neptune in the late 19th century.
francois arago discovered neptune in the late 19th century.
who discovered neptune in the late 19th century?
francois arago
in the 1840s, the french mathematician urbain le verrier used newtonian mechanics to analyse perturbations in the orbit of uranus, and hypothesised that they were caused by the gravitational pull of a yet-undiscovered planet. le verrier predicted the position of this new planet and sent his calculations to german astronomer johann gottfried galle. on 23 september 1846, the night following his receipt of the letter, galle and his student heinrich d'arrest discovered neptune, exactly where le verrier had predicted. there remained some slight discrepancies in the giant planets' orbits. these were taken to indicate the existence of yet another planet orbiting beyond neptune.
planets beyond neptune
john herschel almost discovered neptune the same way his father, william herschel, had discovered uranus in 1781, by chance observation. in an 1846 letter to wilhelm struve, john herschel states that he observed neptune during a sweep of the sky on july 14, 1830. although his telescope was powerful enough to resolve neptune into a small blue disk and show it to be a planet, he did not recognize it at the time and mistook it for a star.









































section::::irregularities in uranus's orbit.
discovery of neptune