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SCIENCE - LE VERRIER Urbain (1811 - 1877) - Letter signed Letter signed, dated “Paris, le 15 Juillet 1876” by the French astronomer and mathematician who specialized in celestial mechanics and is best known for predicting the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics. Director of the Paris Observatory, Le Verrier was intensely engaged for months in complex calculations to explain small but systematic discrepancies between Uranus's observed orbit and the one predicted from the laws of gravity of Newton. At the same time, but unknown to Le Verrier, similar calculations were made by John Couch Adams in England. Le Verrier announced his final predicted position for Uranus's unseen perturbing planet publicly to the French Academy on 31 August 1846, two days before Adams's final solution was privately mailed to the Royal Greenwich Observatory. Le Verrier transmitted his own prediction by 18 September in a letter to Johann Galle of the Berlin Observatory. The letter arrived five days later, and the planet was found with the Berlin Fraunhofer refractor that same evening, 23 September 1846, by Galle and Heinrich d'Arrest within 1° of the predicted location near the boundary between Capricorn and Aquarius. Addressed to his colleague, the French physicist Hippolyte Fizeau (1819 - 1896), concerning a meeting at the Paris Observatory : “…La séance de Juillet du Conseil a dû être différée jusqu’au moment où nous aurions une réponse du Ministre au sujet du miroir. Cette réponse étant arrivée, il devient indispensable de réunir le Conseil Lundi prochain à une heure, à l’Observatoire…”. 1 p. In-8. With letterhead “Obsersavoire de Paris”. - This item is under temporary import. If the item is delivered within the United Kingdom, it will be subject to a 5% Value Added Tax (VAT) on the hammer price.
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SCIENCE - LE VERRIER Urbain (1811 - 1877) - Letter signed
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