Discovering a Distant Planet
This page honors John Couch Adams (1819-1892), Johann Gottfried Galle (1812-1910), and Urbain Jean-Joseph Le Verrier (1811-1877)
The image is a digital rendering of the cloudy atmosphere of Neptune.
In the mid-1840s, Adams and Le Verrier realized that disturbances in the orbits of the known planets in the Solar System hinted at the existence of at least one planet beyond the orbit of Uranus. Working independently, they calculated the likely place in the heavens where an unseen planet might be lurking, and the race was on to see who would actually view the distant planet first. Astronomers in Great Britain, France, and other countries kept a close watch on the sky but it was Galle, in Berlin, who identified the planet in 1846.
After heated disagreements, the newly discovered world was named Neptune.
Listen to the music! ♫ ♪
Toccata for flute, alto flute, harp, fretless bass, and percussion.
Choose a format to play or download: MP3 | MIDI.
Double fugue for flute, alto flute, harp, fretless bass, and percussion.
Choose a format to play or download: MP3 | MIDI.