The Planet Neptune.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 April 1914, Page 2

The Planet Neptune.

• * \ (By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN.) ■ i The discovery of the planet Nep-' tune—-that mighty world swinging] ;in the great deeps of space nearly' : throe li'.lici miles away from our' : earLli—was the cause of a singular! j controversy between two great as-,' ; tronomers—one English, the otheri . French. This controversy raged for! > oars in journals, papers, books, andj in learned societies. Here are the facts : ; The distant planet Uranus had, j been discovered by Sir John Hers- ; chel on March 18, IS7I. It i 3. ! 1,781,680,000 miles from the sun. When a new planet or comet ia discovered mathematicians of the highest rank at once compute its^ orbit or path in space and publish1 its ephemeris, giving its exact position for the future. A number of astronomers made ephemerides for Uranus. But, unlike the other planets, it kept' "running off the track," always out. a little further than computed.. Again astronomers soon made ■. new. and accurate as possible tables, yet Uranus would not obey. Then they all knew that there was a werldl far and away beyond that, by its, attraction, made the disturbance.j None was free to begin the gigantic! work of computing where it was, inj what direction, its distance, and itsy orbit. John Couch Adams, a young ma-'j I thematician in Cambridge, attacked] j this problem, the greatest yet un-i dertaken by the human mind.! Adams was aged twenty-four years! ' wiien he began the memorable re-> search. This was in 1843. ! I The labours of Hercules were sur- ! passed by this intellectual giant, and in September, 1845, he sent his results to the Greenwich Observatory. But they were not published to the world. In October, he called at the observatory and left another paper giving full elements of the planet. And our astronomers did not search for the new world with their telescopes. But meanwhile the great French astronomer, U. J. J. Le Verrier, older by several years than Adams, began a solution of the huge problem. He published his Part I. of researches on November 10, 18-15, and Part 11. June 3, 1846. Adams and Le Verrier were not aware of their mutual labours. On September 1, I> Verrier in France, not having a telescope, wrote to Dr. Galle in Berlin to look for the new planet. This letter was received in Berlin on September 23, 1846. When night came on Dr. Galle turned the telescope at the designated point in space and soon the eye of man saw the hitherto unknown world at the mighty distance of 2,789,831,000 miles from the sun, making one circuit in about 165 of our years. The apparent angular diameter ofi the moon and sun is very nearly half of one degree, but Neptune was discovered within one degree of the computed position, or the average of both of these illustrious mathematicians. The solution of this capital problem has ever been considered the i highest achievement of pure mathe- ; matical astronomy. At once, con-i I troversy began between France and: I England for honours. This was ; finally settled, that both men were j worthy of equal, praise and exalted; honours so long as men shall inhabit the earth.—"London Budget."