Whose calculations helped predict the existence of Neptune?
Quick Answer
John Couch Adams’ calculations were one of the two independent predictions that led to Neptune’s discovery in 1846. He worked from irregularities in Uranus’s orbit.
The Full Story
John Couch Adams, an English mathematician, calculated where an unseen planet might be affecting Uranus’s orbit in 1845. His work was carried out independently of, and almost simultaneously with, Urbain Le Verrier’s similar calculations in France. Observations based on these predictions led Johann Galle and Heinrich d’Arrest to Neptune’s discovery on 23 September 1846. Adams is remembered as one of the key figures behind one of astronomy’s most famous predictions.
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