An achievement for the British: they managed to steal the star, which is 4.5 billion km from Earth. A new study reveals that the credit for the discovery of the planet Neptune was stolen from the French, with the help of forging documents and their disappearance
Britain was found guilty of one of the most serious crimes in history: stealing another world. A group of historians has concluded that the British fraudulently took credit for the discovery of the planet Neptune, robbing the French of their rightful moments of glory.
Neptune orbits the Sun at a distance of 4.5 billion kilometers, and is the second planet farthest from the Sun. The star recorded the strongest winds in the solar system, the speed of which reaches 2,000 km/h. Since its discovery in 1846, Neptune has yet to complete a full revolution around the Sun.
The group concluded that the British stole the credit for its discovery after years of detective work, thanks to documents discovered in Chile and stolen from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, UK. From these documents and other documents it appears that Britain did not indulge in deception exercises to strengthen its claim that the British mathematician, John Crouch Adams, predicted the location of Neptune.
But this is simply not true, claim William Sheehan, Nicholas Killerstorm and Craig and even in the latest issue of the journal "Scientific American". "The British stole Neptune," the writers confidently concluded. The roots of the battle to discover Neptune are rooted in the discovery of another planet, Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, discovered in 1781 by the Englishman William Herschel. The discovery stunned scientists and the public, who were surprised to find that part of the solar system was not visible.
But Uranus has been observed time and time again by astronomers in different places. The scientists began to wonder what was the reason for this, and if there was another star nearby. The French mathematician Urban Le Verrier thought the answer was yes, and instructed the astronomers in Berlin exactly where to point their telescopes. On September 23, 1846, the scientists noticed a blue dot in the sky, exactly at the point announced by Le Verrier. The discovery of Neptune was then considered a victory for French science.
Then the British came into the picture. True, the French managed very well before as well, but the British claimed that they had already calculated the place before, and simply did not have time to aim their telescopes. As proof of this, the Royal Astronomer, Sir George Biddle Airy, presented a series of documents in which he explained Britain's claims. Among the documents were also calculations and predictions by Adams.
In the end, it was decided that the discovery would be jointly credited to Britain and France, who would share the glory between them, and it was announced that Adams, a brilliant but reclusive and strange mathematician, and the French Le Verrier, were the official discoverers of Neptune. However, the astronomical community has always regarded the British story with some skepticism. In the 20th century, historians decided to start a comprehensive investigation of the documents presented by Irie. "But every time they asked for the document file from the Greenwich Observatory, the librarians claimed that it was not found," the three wrote in their article.
Adams did calculate Neptune's position, but didn't tell anyone
Adams. Shy, serious, strict, religious and also suffering from a disorder similar to autism, in fact, the bag was stolen by an astronomer named Olin Agan, and it was only after his death, six years ago in Chile, that the pursuit of him ended. The conclusion from a perusal of it is that Britain grossly exaggerated Adams's contribution. Adamas was a shy, serious, strict and religious man, who apparently suffered from Asperger's syndrome (a developmental disorder that manifests itself in severe communication difficulties, similar to autism), and was the most respected mathematician of his time. His colleagues gave him a lot of support, albeit unjustified, while the French failed to support Le Verrier, who was unpopular among his colleagues.
Adams did calculate Neptune's orbit correctly, but he did not bother to do anything to convince others of his correctness. The only attempt he made to interest Airey, who was then the most important astronomer in Britain, occurred on October 21, 1845. That day Adams appeared at the door of Airey's house in Greenwich Hill. Adams presented his papers, but Airey, who was known as an overbearing bureaucrat, refused to look. Only later did Airey try to rectify the situation and claim that Adams was on the verge of discovering the star. Adams did make some interesting calculations, but nothing more.
"The title of 'discoverer of the star' should be attributed to the person who was able to both correctly estimate its location and convince the astronomers to look for it in the assumed place," the article states. "Therefore, only La Veria is entitled to the title." In other words, the international decision, according to which Britain deserves part of the glory for the discovery of Neptune, was based only on Britain's great contribution to humanity: a "renovated" file.
