Urbain Le Verrier

Urbain Le Verrier predicted the planet Neptune using mathematics alone. From small irregularities in the orbit of Uranus he calculated where an unseen planet must lie, and on the very night his prediction reached Berlin in 1846 the planet was found within a degree of his position — a triumph of Newtonian celestial mechanics.

• Predicted the existence and position of Neptune (1846)
• Analysed anomalies in the orbit of Mercury
• Directed the Paris Observatory

• The Prediction and Discovery of Neptune1846 CE

• Part ofModern Astronomy
• PredictedThe Prediction and Discovery of Neptune