The case of the pilfered planet.

• Autores: William Sheehan, Nicholas Kollerstrom, Craig B. Waff
• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 6, 2004, págs. 92-99
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article discusses the rivalries involved with the discovery of the planet Neptune. The story of mathematical sleuthing and telescopic detection of the planet that Jean Joseph Le Verrier named Neptune is one of the most familiar and often told in the history of astronomy. Also familiar is the controversy set off when, soon after Galle announced the discovery, it emerged that a young and little-known English mathematician, John Couch Adams, had independently tackled the same problem and deduced much the same position--before Le Verrier had. Over the years, some historians have questioned this orthodoxy. Since the late 1960s Dennis Rawlins, an independent analyst based in Baltimore, has gone even further and suggested that 19th-century British astronomers consciously faked--or at least sexed up--the dossier. From our review of the original documents, we have concluded that Adams's British contemporaries gave him more credit than was due him, even though he had performed some remarkable calculations. INSET: Overview/Neptune Discovery.