June 9th is Johann Gottfried Galle's birthday. Galle was a German astronomer who was the first to observe the planet Neptune and recognize it as a planet. His doctoral thesis was about the unusual orbit of Uranus. He sent a copy of the thesis to Le Verrier at the Paris Observatory. When Le Verrier replied a year later, Galle was told to look within a certain section of sky at a specific time. He used the Berlin Observatory's telescope and quickly Neptune within 1° of the predicted position.
Neptune had been observed before by other notable astronomers like Galileo, John Herschel, Lalande and Von Lamont. They all recorded it as a star. Galle was the first to identify it as a planet. He would go on to become the Director of the Breslau Observatory where he discovered three comets and observed the crêpe ring of Saturn.
Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.
Follow About.com Chemistry on Facebook or Twitter.
Neptune had been observed before by other notable astronomers like Galileo, John Herschel, Lalande and Von Lamont. They all recorded it as a star. Galle was the first to identify it as a planet. He would go on to become the Director of the Breslau Observatory where he discovered three comets and observed the crêpe ring of Saturn.
Find out what else occurred on this day in science history.
Follow About.com Chemistry on Facebook or Twitter.
Comments
How cool!
Science history is fascinating!