Neptune’s Orbit: Reassessing Celestial Mechanics

The almost miraculous discovery of 1846 and at first bitter priority dispute ended in March 1847, with the piece by Jean-Baptiste Biot that was reprinted in The Athenaeum, followed by the orchestrated, highly public display of men of men of science getting along amicably at the Oxford meeting BAAS meeting in June, where Le Verrier and Adams met. Meanwhile, Adams had swiftly refined Neptune’s orbit, and Lassell’s prompt discovery of Triton had enabled Neptune’s mass to be determined. However, in that decade, American astronomy was coming of age, and for lack of large telescopes was led by elite mathematicians who now fastened on Neptune to prove their credentials. Benjamin Peirce of Harvard, with claims that Neptune had been found by “happy accident”, re-ignited controversy by challenging whether a theoretical discovery had been made at all. This, and the potential for further discoveries, sustained a century’s international focus and effort to revise celestial mechanics.